Proponents of the flat earth theory motivate me to pay more attention, do more research. I also expect their extreme belief sheds light on similar beliefs that are less controversial.
In general I’m interested in how our minds work with regard to belief systems. It’s unfortunate that in the case of flat earth theory adherents it’s difficult to determine who is the victim of self-deception and who is deliberately trying to deceive others.
From what I’ve seen, the motivations for the imposters would be popularity (either within their circle or more widely), money—or, whatever it is that internet trolls motivates.
To some extend the way flat earthers think and behave is illustrative of some of the larger trends we worry about. Like fake news, the unwillingness to listen to the other side, the psychological rewards of belonging to a special group that knows the truth, the feeling of being superior, etc.
Here are few things that flat earthers drew my attention to:
- the problem of refraction over a body of water
- how to recognize a Fata Morgana (mirage)
- why people in orbit experience weightlessness (not because of lack of gravity in orbit, but because they are in constant free fall)
- how high one needs to be to see the curvature of the earth with the naked eye (really high)
- the importance of models that make accurate predictions (please read David Deutsch)
- how people that are strongly attached to an idea become impervious to anything that might challenge that idea (dead give away: the tendency to immediately laugh at a proposition)
And more.
I started writing this post because while I was researching flat earth claims, I discovered that traveling from the coast of Antarctica to the Geographic South Pole has become a sport: using skies, using kites, using fat bikes. The gap between this reality and the flat earth idea that Antarctica is unreachable, forbidden, actually the edge of the earth, etc. is amazing.
The latest fad is biking:
Note that the English television presenter and actress Helen Skelton is on the list. Also, in contrast, Daniel P. Burton, who is a pretty ordinary bike shop owner who became the first to make the journey on bike only (here is his blog).