Techno-Paranoia

"Within a single generation," writes David Ritchie, "paranoia has become as American as baseball and Mom’s apple pie."

...Ritchie, a bearded man of about 50 who has lived and worked in Seoul, Korea, since the mid-90s, is a specialist in geophysics and aerospace technology. Over the past two decades, he’s written books about everything from volcanoes and earthquakes to artificial intelligence and the history of American space-based weapons systems. He’s also written countless articles on science and technology for a variety of magazines. It’s only been in the last few years, however, that he’s turned his attentions toward conspiracy theories. Or, more specifically, what he has labeled "techno-paranoia"–those particular conspiracies that revolve around technological issues–UFOs, "scalar weapons," antigravity engines and the like.

...As it turns out, nearly every aspect of most of these stories can be traced back to some particular movie or tv show–like Star Trek–or the works of Tolkien, Philip K. Dick and H.G. Wells. Certain elements can be found originally in Dungeons & Dragons, while still others (those involving secret underground bases) find their roots in Greek, Roman and Norse mythology.

- Jim Knipfel, Techno-Paranoia, Taking Occam’s Razor to the Techno-Paranoids