I was just thinking of the some of the legacy of the fabulists, and fiction writing futurists. When there were still vast unknown regions on the planet Earth, the existence of many lost civilizations (in the heart of Africa, or the heart of Tibet, or under the earth or sea) were popular notions in fiction. Some of the prime examples were the lost worlds of Jules Verne and the Shangri La of myth.

As satelites, cameras, and other sorts of tools of awareness have proliferated this mythology has contracted (although there are always a few believers). Now that you can get a google satelite shot of your home and most anywhere else in the world, there is just not enough mystery left to contain the size of some of the myths we want.

In the last 50 years another level of myths have been largely displaced. Those are the idea that other civilizations exist in our solar system. Edgar Rice Burroughs had his series of pulp fiction books with adventures on Mars and Venus. But now we know there are no jungles on Venus or complex life systems on Mars.

And we now know that if there are aliens running aound the solar system, they aren't doing it in an obvious fashion. If you study through the ages the changes in "extraordinary experiences," you would find they do change with the times. As a user of Occam's razor, these reports tell us much more about our own psychology than any external happenings. The "face" on Mars could be a study of the inevitable debunking of one such "proof of other civilizations."

I do find it disappointing in our off world travels so far, we haven't had even one extraterrestial insect hop past a lens. Of course when we found out how dry, hot, cold, corrosive, etc, off world conditions were I don't think any biologists have been surprised by these findings. There are still the "flat earthers" and religious literalists that believe the earth is only 1000's of years old, so we will always have our ignorant believers. I am more interested in our communal sense of wonder.

Interestingly, as skepticism for extraterrestial life has grown, shining the light of knowledge may actually inspire mythology in at least one case. The impact of Kepler finding some "*earths" will renew our sense of wonder about other worlds rife with life. I don't think it can come too soon. I do think "finding" that "lost world" does inspire greatly.

*==earth analogues existing in a nice stable habitable zone of a nice stable star system