My loathe for conspiracy theorists-flat earthers especially-kind of makes me want to watch this.
It should be a panel of former astronauts who listen attentively and take notes throughout, before slowly turning and pointing at a big photo of the spherical Earth that they took from space before returning to it.
Do this for every contestant.
Photos won’t convince people like that because they’ll just think it’s all fake. I suspect even if we all pitched in to buy them a trip into space, they still would think it was all fake – screens instead of windows, like an amusement park virtual reality ride.
Oh no, they’ll believe when we kick them out the airlock. Don’t worry they’ll be in a spacesuit, we’ll see how fervently they hold onto convictions when we offer them the opportunity to take the helmet off. I doubt there would be many takers
Nah, the spacesuits view port will be a screen, and no one’s dumb enough to take the helmet off in space, they know they’d die.
They think the earth is flat, not space won’t kill them.
They seem to think the Earth is housed in some kind of giant sphere. Presumably air fills this magic sphere so they’d be okay.
I don’t know, I don’t subscribe to their delusions.
Oh God. This is continuing to give attention to stupid.
When MTV started making reality tv show and encouraged morons to be morons, where most of us laughed, all it did was empower them.
Well…yes and no. I actually expect a lot of Flat Earthers to come out of the woodwork FULL BORE to win some prize money. I can envision this being like Shark Tank, but with the added benefit of educating uninformed minds as to why these people are idiots.
I guess I’m seeing a net benefit.
You have too much faith in humans.
It will serve to brainwash and make other people get in contact with the crazy and start believe the stuff they say.
I don’t think shows like Mythbusters did anything but the opposite.
But this won’t be Mythbusters and expecting it to not be malicious is being too naive
Whoa. Malice towards whom? Are you afraid flat earth folks will feel bad about being shut down?
Mythbusters took commonly held ideas and showed whether they were correct or not. Sometimes they actually said that what they were showing was true, often they showed how things are sort of true to a given value of true but there’s a lot of subtlety and nuance in the answer.
But the Earth isn’t flat. We know it isn’t, there is no debating the topic unless you’ve got a neurological deficiency. All this show he’s going to do is be, haha look at the morons, which won’t do anything because we already do that.
No, they took random subjects as well. It’s called MYTHbusters. They didn’t just take proven facts and investigate. They took all kinds of dumbass thing and debunked them.
Have a look: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MythBusters_episodes
Are you being stupid on purpose or just to be an ass? Just to be sure. Now, on to the part that actually matters:
To you this might be a perfect chance to laugh at them, to them, this is a perfect chance to give them a voice and a place to show their theories and spread their conspiracy, remember that idiots might not be brave enough to show they are idiots in public until they are given a voice or a feeling of not being alone in their stupidity.Now if they bribe enough people or if the sponsors decide to side with the flat-earhers for whatever reason, they just need to replace the panel enough times until they are willing to make the flat-earhers look convincing enough and we get even more idiots.
I’ve seen enough to believe idiots are a majority, not a minority like lemmy or reddit loves to believe, I really hope I’m wrong and it just stops at everyone laughing at the crazy people, but things can always get worse.
I can envision this being like Shark Tank, but with the added benefit of educating uninformed minds as to why these people are idiots.
The gimmick only really works from season to season if you occasionally allow one of these freaks to win.
Also sets up this ridiculous standard of “debate”, wherein arguing over a thing is considered more important than actually understanding a thing. Episode after episode of people making increasingly fanciful claims and fraudulent proofs will simply reinforce the idea that the Earth is, in fact, flat. If you have a parade of people asserting with supreme confidence that this theory is true, you create the impression that there is some serious doubt about the shape of the planet.
Lock the flat earthers and hollow earthers in a room and let them fight it out. ;)
Then a new theory emerges, the lost filling pie earth, in which the creator was actually in the midst of forming the planet, got distracted and threw the shell in the oven without the contents.
This has the added benefit of explaining global warming and it conveniently fits over the shell of a giant turtle.
Sounds promising
My loathe for conspiracy theorists-flat earthers especially-kind of makes me want to watch this.
That’s quite literally what they are hoping. This is rage-bait sensationalistic reality TV. Don’t fucking give it the time of day and stop sharing for fake internet points… let it die as it should.
Edit: Also downvoted the article because I’m using the same logic… it’s not personal - I just am so tired of seeing posts that are effectively free advertisement for things I despise and don’t want to encourage it.
And downvoted by me (for the avoidance of doubt, the article, not your comment) because it has nothing to do with science.
Wow. We should only cater to your needs and wants. Got it, champ. 🫰
We should though. He seems like a cool dude with a good head on his shoulders and we’d all be better off if we took his advice.
Nice tertiary account. You’re sad.
How much are they paying? And how much for the expert to be bribed to change their mind?
Asking for a friend.
The earth is flat…
Do you agree the earth is about 2/3 lakes, rivers, oceans etc?
Are they carbonated?
No, the world is flat … Give me money…
“Ocean acidification refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.” - https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html#:~:text=The ocean absorbs about 30,the levels in the ocean.
You know there are some naturally carbonated springs. The Earth is not flat after all.
Reality show aka scripted
They will sue the producers and the experts for won’t listen as had no intension of actually paying the prize.
They will lose.
I’d like to see them try LMAO 😂😂😂
It has been known for centuries that you see a different night sky depending on how far north or south you are. A flat earth model has to explain why northern pole star is only visible in some parts of the world, while southern cross is only visible in other parts.
Not to mention the sun setting and rising, timezones, the sun being visible for six months from north and south pole, lunar and solar eclipses that can only be explained with pretzel like reasoning and so on.
Pictures of space are photoshopped, as is the giant photo of space that the scientists have pasted upon the firmament to fool you.
Tha Gubment
Didn’t work when Chris angel offered 1 mil to prove magic is real.
The crazies spun a “noble witch” narrative that anyone who practices magic is above materialism. As if fortune tellers aren’t more aggressive than knife salesmen.
Then they don’t get the money. I think the concept is pretty simple.
If you can explain how magic works, it isn’t “real magic”. Sort of the paradox of magic as a concept.
If I can dangle a steel penny in the air with a couple of magnets, is that a miracle? Only if I don’t know how magnets works.
Iirc the rules were prove magic is real as described. Ie. Prove the rules of divination as written in their belief system. Of course it’s a scientific approach, and it would make the unexplained explained, conventionally that means it “stops being magic” but all they had to do was prove their beliefs aren’t bullshit.
Ie. Prove the rules of divination as written in their belief system.
Traditionally, you prove (or more practically refute) the efficacy of a magical system like divination through empirical consistency.
Divination doesn’t work because it is unreliable. I can predict, say, the next week of weather or the outcome of an athletic game through climatology or sabermetrics far more reliably than the I Ching or Tarot.
But let’s pretend it did work. I’m not sure how you’d functionally prove it.
I’ve often thought it would be fun to get a big group of Flat-Earthers involved in a scientific project to ‘prove’ that the Earth is flat. They’re not allowed to rely on any existing science that might be biased towards ‘Big Globe’ so they have to start from scratch using simple instruments. Using existing maps and GPS are definitely out of the question. Have them conduct cartographic surveys and take astronomical measurements so that they can show that reality is inconsistent with a round Earth. Basically, see how long you can keep them going for before their brains break.
They will just put a ruler on the ground. If earth was perfectly round, then the ruler would only touch the ground in exactly one point. But the entire ruler touches the ground. Hence, the earth cannot be perfectly round, so it must be flat. QED.
I’m convinced, give him the prize!
(we’re still sharing, right?)
Didn’t the kinda do that in Behind The Curve?
They used a long body of water as a flat reference, set up 3 columns with a hole through them at the same height above the water reference.
A torch shone through 1 end should be visible at the other end if all of the holes are on the same plane.
Because of the curvature, they had to lift the last column to be able to see the light.
They didn’t manage to explain that oneEratosthenes calculated the circumference of Earth more than 2000 years ago with a stick and counting steps.
You are giving them too much credit if you think they can take measurements and conduct research.
Trump would like to have a word with you.
What a stupid show idea. Everyone knows that the best reality show is to take an activity usually undertaken by your grandmother and turn it into a global franchise.
Competitive knitting, competitive watercolors, competitive cooking, competitive dressmaking you name it. If your grandmother does it it can be turned into a television program.
Why are they messing around with this crap?
You’re saying your grandmother doesn’t try to convince everyone she meets the Earth is flat?
I think that’s only dementia plus plus, and she never had that.
If their target audience is baby boomers with dementia, then maybe this flat earth thing qualifies.
Make one of the experts an astronaut who has been in space.
Not enough. They don’t even believe their own cameras they’ve up on balloons. They think there is some kind of “round earth illuminati” that has infiltrated literally every part of your life to propagate the “lie”.
I wanna see an experienced astronaut convince another experienced astronaut that the earth is flat.
Now THAT would be some good viewing! 📺🍿
Why?
Because filming and laughing at people who are mentally distressed isn’t really satisfying is it. They think the Earth is flat they’re not normal in the head why are considering this to be entertainment.
That’s a red herring. I don’t care about the original post because, like you pointed out, it’s about entertainment, not science.
Back to the original question I asked the parent poster, I’d like to know what value would bring two experienced astronauts debating a flat earth argument.
Two experienced astronauts who’ve legitimately witnessed the full rotation of the earth, they’ve seen every side of the globe from their vantage point above. Now imagine one of them trying to convince the other -dead serious although he’s actually trolling- that the earth is flat. How could that NOT be amusing 🤣
Why is this in a science community?
I want to read real science content here.
