Strange Posted March 3, 2019 Posted March 3, 2019 Netflix have made a documentary about flat-Earthers. It shows how they do two experiments in an attempt to prove the Earth is flat but instead (spoiler!) the results are consistent with the Earth being round. Which, of course, changes no ones' minds. Quote One of the more jaw-dropping segments of the documentary comes when Bob Knodel, one of the hosts on a popular Flat Earth YouTube channel, walks viewers through an experiment involving a laser gyroscope. As the Earth rotates, the gyroscope appears to lean off-axis, staying in its original position as the Earth’s curvature changes in relation. “What we found is, is when we turned on that gyroscope we found that we were picking up a drift. A 15 degree per hour drift,” Knodel says, acknowledging that the gyroscope’s behavior confirmed to exactly what you’d expect from a gyroscope on a rotating globe. https://www.newsweek.com/behind-curve-netflix-ending-light-experiment-mark-sargent-documentary-movie-1343362 1
Ten oz Posted March 3, 2019 Posted March 3, 2019 (edited) I watched it. I found it interesting. Like with religion those who believe in Flat Earth, at least the ones in the documentary, have made it a way of live. It is bigger to them than merely being about physics. For many it is a conspiracy with roots in govt, media, education, and social interaction at large. For them to admit the earth is round would mean admitting any number of things about the nature of themselves. Edited March 3, 2019 by Ten oz
Sensei Posted March 3, 2019 Posted March 3, 2019 (edited) What they will do when tickets for spaceship flight will be cheap enough for everybody allowing to flight to orbit and further,? Probably they will find new myth, to BS people, on their YouTube Channels and continue making money on yet another nonsense.. The more ridiculous, the more controversial, the better, for such video and performer.. Edited March 3, 2019 by Sensei
koti Posted March 3, 2019 Posted March 3, 2019 I find it disappointing that Netflix (or any other plarform/production studio) finds it lucrative to dissect a ridiculous subject like flat earthers. Nothing against Netflix, if it makes them money thats what they’ll do, its just a little scary that „dumb” is the new cool thing. I guess its interesting from a psychological point of view thats why I will probably watch the documentary but I fear I might get a little more stupid from it.
CharonY Posted March 3, 2019 Posted March 3, 2019 6 minutes ago, koti said: its just a little scary that „dumb” is the new cool thing. I think there was always quite a market for that. I remember from my childhood folks discussing earnestly the benefits of homeopathy or "mental healing" of cancer. The real difference is that there are new platforms now that can amplify those views much further. On TV the relative relevance was determined by the time slot.
koti Posted March 4, 2019 Posted March 4, 2019 10 hours ago, CharonY said: I think there was always quite a market for that. I remember from my childhood folks discussing earnestly the benefits of homeopathy or "mental healing" of cancer. The real difference is that there are new platforms now that can amplify those views much further. On TV the relative relevance was determined by the time slot. Sure, I remember those as a kid too. But one would think that the information revolution would have caused an increase in knowledge since its widely available therefore we should see a decrease in coloquial stupidity, thats definitely not happening. Plus there is always money in cheap entertainment too which is a catalyst for driving morons.
Silvestru Posted March 4, 2019 Posted March 4, 2019 17 hours ago, Strange said: Netflix have made a documentary about flat-Earthers. It shows how they do two experiments in an attempt to prove the Earth is flat but instead (spoiler!) the results are consistent with the Earth being round. Which, of course, changes no ones' minds. https://www.newsweek.com/behind-curve-netflix-ending-light-experiment-mark-sargent-documentary-movie-1343362 Finally someone qualified proved beyond a doubt what we were all speculating. Next documentary is about anti-vaxxers I'm sure.
dimreepr Posted March 4, 2019 Posted March 4, 2019 18 hours ago, Strange said: Netflix have made a documentary about flat-Earthers. It shows how they do two experiments in an attempt to prove the Earth is flat but instead (spoiler!) the results are consistent with the Earth being round. Which, of course, changes no ones' minds. https://www.newsweek.com/behind-curve-netflix-ending-light-experiment-mark-sargent-documentary-movie-1343362 1 Interestingly, no one in history explicitly documents the Earth being flat. Why now?
CharonY Posted March 4, 2019 Posted March 4, 2019 9 hours ago, koti said: But one would think that the information revolution would have caused an increase in knowledge since its widely available therefore we should see a decrease in coloquial stupidity, thats definitely not happening. Perhaps hindsight is 20/20, but there was always the issue about how the massive amount of information is being distributed. The idea of the internet was that of democratized information, but without curation, how would could one distinguish between crap and real info? Wiki was an effort in democratized curation though it was always thought to be vulnerable to agendas. Then social media came along and it served as a massive amplifier for misinformation. A basic issue is that emotional responses have far more impact than factual ones. This makes it a great space for fringe ideas to sprout and spread. 3 hours ago, dimreepr said: Interestingly, no one in history explicitly documents the Earth being flat. Why now? Marketplace of ideas. Folks love cheap junk (incidentally the whole thing does make some aspects of the values of free speech more difficult).
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