Ask HN: Favorite conspiracy theories?
I’ll offer the Phantom Time Hypothesis: “The phantom time hypothesis is a historical conspiracy theory asserted by Heribert Illig. First published in 1991, it hypothesizes a conspiracy by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Pope Sylvester II, and possibly the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, to fabricate the Anno Domini dating system retrospectively, in order to place them at the special year of AD 1000, and to rewrite history[1] to legitimize Otto's claim to the Holy Roman Empire. Illig believed that this was achieved through the alteration, misrepresentation and forgery of documentary and physical evidence.[2] According to this scenario, the entire Carolingian period, including the figure of Charlemagne, is a fabrication, with a "phantom time" of 297 years (AD 614–911) added to the Early Middle Ages.”
And - of course - “The proposal has been universally rejected by mainstream historians.”
28 comments
[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 70.6 ms ] threadI mean, GPS, the internet, strong encryption (look up history of DES). Much of what we take for granted came from black or semi-black US military projects. Leaked out I guess, sometimes literally.
God knows what's out there now, but UFO sightings are a reasonable place to start. Hypersonic transport. Plasma stealth. Nuclear engines. EMP, railguns and laser weapons.
What's made public is a tiny fraction of what's already out there. Terrifying but fascinating at the same time.
Funny that we already have weapons powerful enough to end the species but advancement continues.
Most people don't realize, but patents important enough are, and always have been, immediately been appropriated secret. A little known purpose of the patent office is to keep the lid on anything truly ground shaking.
And that's where my conspiracy theories start. There's so much out there kept from the rest of the world. I guess in 20 years or so we'll know what they've got now
There's nothing about it on the internet. Absolutely nothing. Not even a hint.
I use long lasting throwaways but it's trivial to find me. If nobody has heard about something you haven't either. As much as I don't like mysterious technomagic I understand the reasons, I'm just really curious
Edit: just for the luls I'll guess that it's a giant radar/bunker complex. Russian/asian nukes tend to come from the Northwest amiright. Probably in Oregon or maybe Alaska. Either missle defence or early warning
Have Blue was kept well hidden for a long time for example - it's hard to imagine for me this was flying around during the Disco era:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Have_Blue
Also, the reason this is the case is that CERN discovered the universe is a simulation and broke time trying to hack it.
The true cause of the Mandela Effect isn't false or inaccurate memories, it's the fact that time isn't a single, straight line. Rather, there are multiple timelines that have converged on what we all think of as the current moment.
Everyone is remembering their origin timeline correctly... it’s just that some people came from the timeline where it was The Berenstein Bears, and others where it was The Berenstain Bears.
This could tie in, because your 'mandela' effect could be memories from your 'other' lives that you've lived while 'jumping' through the multiverse.
I had a similar experience working on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the "we never landed on the moon" nutjobs, but the Mars people are far crazier.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies
Seven months later, Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs to say Beyoncé had the best video of all time.
A few days later Obama calls West a jackass in an “accidentally” recorded interview.
The theory is that Kanye West and Obama were in on finding a very roundabout way to condemn Wilson.
Why not believe this conspiracy now?
Because extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence... or some evidence, at least.
Take the minutes of the last business meeting you had.
Without even asking your boss, publish them on the open web.
Here on Hacker News for example.
After a day or so point this out to your CEO, telling him you will be doing this with _all_ future meetings.
Report back to us what was the result of your happy chat with your CEO.
I think you will find that, sadly, most of us do, indeed, conspire in secret against the interests of the general public at large.
(EDIT: Can't claim credit for this one. It was the top prizewinner in an OMNI Magazine contest for joke conspiracy theories.)
I’ve heard an additional bit.
We call those roughly three centuries The Dark Ages. Very little was recorded as happening throughout them, when compared to the time period that came before and the time period that came after. They are “dark” - as in unknown.
According to this conspiracy theory, the reason that so little happened is because the time period that we call The Dark Ages never actually existed.
This is easily the most intriguing site on the 9/11 conspiracy.
All politicians have told us that since the US is the global fiat currency, this will never happen here. It has happened to many other countries which have borrowed too much, but it will never happen to the US. So it's OK for the US to keep spending, and cutting taxes at the same time.
My conspiracy theory is that all the politicians are deliberately lying, and this is a possible scenario.