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Interesting bit to be found at The Conversation:
Speakers recently flew in from around (or perhaps, across?) the earth for a three-day event held in Birmingham: the UK's first ever public Flat Earth Convention. It was well attended, and wasn't just three days of speeches and YouTube clips (though, granted, there was a lot of this). There was also a lot of team-building, networking, debating, workshops – and scientific experiments.
Yes, flat earthers do seem to place a lot of emphasis and priority on scientific methods and, in particular, on observable facts. The weekend in no small part revolved around discussing and debating science, with lots of time spent running, planning, and reporting on the latest set of flat earth experiments and models. Indeed, as one presenter noted early on, flat earthers try to "look for multiple, verifiable evidence" and advised attendees to "always do your own research and accept you might be wrong".
While flat earthers seem to trust and support scientific methods, what they don't trust is scientists, and the established relationships between "power" and "knowledge". This relationship between power and knowledge has long been theorised by sociologists. By exploring this relationship, we can begin to understand why there is a swelling resurgence of flat earthers.
Interestingly enough, the author delves into philosophy, particularly the work of Michel Foucault, who, for those not familiar with him, traced the relations between knowledge and power, especially in The Archaeology of Knowledge.
In the 21st century, we are witnessing another important shift in both power and knowledge due to factors that include the increased public platforms afforded by social media. Knowledge is no longer centrally controlled and – as has been pointed out in the wake of Brexit – the age of the expert may be passing. Now, everybody has the power to create and share content. When Michael Gove, a leading proponent of Brexit, proclaimed: "I think the people of this country have had enough of experts", it would seem that he, in many ways, meant it.
Ah, that explains so much beyond Brexit! Alternative Knowledge!
And for those who will never read the entire article, bit of the take-away:
In many ways, a public meeting of flat earthers is a product and sign of our time; a reflection of our increasing distrust in scientific institutions, and the moves by power-holding institutions towards populism and emotions. In much the same way that Foucault reflected on what social outcasts could reveal about our social systems, there is a lot flat earthers can reveal to us about the current changing relationship between power and knowledge. And judging by the success of this UK event – and the large conventions planned in Canada and America this year – it seems the flat earth is going to be around for a while yet.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday May 05 2018, @10:36PM (5 children)
Bollocks. The path of the Sun across the sky and its descent below the horizon are easily observable facts and completely destroy practically every single Flat Earth model.
You can sum it all up as "The Earth is flat, and any observations that contradict this are part of a NASA/Illuminati/Stonecutter conspiracy."
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @12:21AM (1 child)
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/07/30 [gocomics.com]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday May 06 2018, @06:03AM
I actually like this one [gocomics.com] better.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday May 06 2018, @06:07AM (1 child)
Indeed, to prove that the Earth is round, all you need it a sundial, something to measure angles, some transportation with distance measurement (e.g. a car with an odometer), and a little bit of geometry.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday May 07 2018, @09:18AM
If you are thinking of Eratosthenes, he didn't prove Earth was round, he assumed that it was round (and sunlight was effectively parallel) and calculated its diameter.
Given the measurements he made, if he had assumed the Earth was flat he would have calculated how high the Sun was.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 07 2018, @09:07AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves