Just imagine if Georgian became the language of intergalactic communication!
The debate surrounding the reform of Georgia’s education system shows no signs of abating. In this new episode of “The Era of Blurred Landmarks,” we look at how the government and the opposition are locked in debate but have yet to find common ground. Perhaps a new discipline introduced by Alik Tsintsadze, Doctor of Technical Sciences, will help the parties do just that—and that is exactly what we will be discussing.
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First, a bit of context. Since the end of last year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has been pushing ahead with a reform of the country’s education system. The most controversial part of this process is the decentralization of universities based on the “one faculty, one city” principle. As a result, the country’s leading higher education institutions have been forced to abolish several faculties. In this light, critics of the reform have turned their attention to a discipline that 20 prospective students will be able to study for free at Kutaisi International University. We are talking about the “Astrosciences and Astroarchaeology” program.
What is wrong with this? First of all, the very names of the disciplines.
“Astroscience”—in an academic sense, such a term practically does not exist. You will not find it in scientific publications, university curricula, or international journals. It is more of a colloquialism, or sometimes a marketing term. In actual scientific practice, specific terms are always used, such as astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology.
What about astroarchaeology? Here, the situation is more nuanced. Formally, in international scientific circles, the primary accepted term is archaeoastronomy. It is under this name that most specialists, conferences, and journals operate. It studies the connection of ancient monuments with the sky, calendar alignments, and astronomy in culture. Astroarchaeology, on the other hand, is used less frequently, sometimes in a more speculative context.
In particular, the word “astroarchaeology” often crops up in popular literature, alternative theories, and media about “ancient astronauts.” Consequently, many scientists view it with skepticism.
What is Professor Tsintsadze known for? The scientist’s theoretical framework is an attempt to unite the Georgian language, writing, and architecture into a single cosmic paradigm. His work is based on the idea that ancient Georgian culture possessed fundamental knowledge about the organization of the Universe, encoded in alphabetic symbols and literary monuments.
And no matter how flattering these words may sound to the Georgian ear, in academic circles, these approaches are dismissed as pseudoscience and speculation. It is important to understand that the term “astrolinguistics” does not officially exist either.
But it does have a historical context, which is linked to early attempts to understand how we might communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence.
Let us stop there. And think about why the political class is searching for new communication platforms—and perhaps even voters across the galaxy?