Author
Brad Meltzer notes that the
stones were built in 1979 at the height of the Cold War, and thus argues that they may have been intended as a message to the possible survivors of a
nuclear World War III. The engraved suggestion to keep humanity's population below 500 million could have been made under the assumption that war had already reduced humanity below this number.
[11]
The guidestones were briefly shown and discussed in the documentary films
Sherman's March (1986) and
Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement (2007), and were featured extensively in a 2012 episode of
Mysteries at the Museum, a "Monumental Mysteries Special" featuring
Don Wildman.
[12]
