Full transcript
0:00(film reeling)
0:02- [Johnny] If you were able to look through the perspective
0:04of a person who thinks the world is flat,
0:07you would see this.
0:09The North pole is right here in the center,
0:11the continent's splayed out over this plane.
0:14And here on the edges, you'd run into 150 foot wall of ice,
0:19guarded by NASA employees with guns.
0:21- [Recorded Speaker] And how far that ice goes outwards.
0:24And, when people have tried to go down there,
0:25they get turned away at gunpoint and put in prison.
0:29- [Johnny] The heavens are a dome
0:30that arcs over the flat earth.
0:32The sun, the moon, the stars,
0:34they're all just little balls of light in the sky
0:37that move around just above the earth's surface.
0:43There are loads of people who actually believe this.
0:46YouTube channels and Facebook pages.
0:48You'll see hundreds of thousands of followers.
0:51Google searches for the term flat earth proof
0:54over time look like this.
0:56It's become incredibly popular.
0:58And recently, a poll showed that only 84%
1:01of Americans agree with the statement,
1:03"I have always believed the world is round", 84%.
1:08And if you're 18 to 24, that's more like 66%,
1:12which is like dangerously close to half.
1:14What is going on here?
1:18- Now, the North Pole,
1:19is the center of a deep ocean.
1:21Whereas the South Pole,
1:23is the center of a high plateau,
1:26which averages seven or eight thousand feet in altitude.
1:29This is frustrating!
1:30And, what's even more frustrating
1:31is every time I try to look into this
1:33and understand it, all I see is coverage
1:35of like, flat earther conventions
1:37and like, interviews with these people.
1:39- We absolutely know for a fact this ain't it.
1:42- These interviews are interesting.
1:43but I wanna understand like,
1:45how someone with a thinking brain
1:47can actually get behind this.
1:49What is this actual belief?
1:51Where does it come from?
1:52And, how do potentially millions of people
1:55believe that the earth is flat?
1:57- [Recorded Male Speaker] The water is completely flat
1:59as far as we can see and as far as we've measured,
2:02and the horizon is completely flat.
2:04- I'm in Mexico now.
2:06I've been sitting on the beach,
2:08reading everything there is to read
2:11about the history of people who believe the earth is flat.
2:17There's one thing that I just had to try for myself.
2:20This is a simple experiment
2:22that anybody can conduct
2:24to determine definitely that the earth is flat.
2:27Grab a spirit level and take it on a plane with you.
2:29(speaking Spanish)
2:30- Found this hardware store,
2:32bought myself a level.
2:33Gracias amigo.
2:34- One of the stranger things we've ever done.
2:36- And I'm bringing it with me on the airplane.
2:38I'm gonna do some of this empirical science myself.
2:41If you are to fly on a non rotating earth,
2:45please explain what kind of experience
2:49will a pilot really have?
2:51The logic goes
2:54that if the earth is round
2:56and I'm flying thousands of miles,
2:58which I'm about to do,
2:59then the airplane will have to be tipped a little bit
3:02the whole time in order to make it
3:03around the curvature of the earth.
3:05- The plane should be constantly dipping its nose forward
3:08in order to compensate for the curvature.
3:10- Show me some planes doing this!
3:13- I would be able to see the tilt of the airplane.
3:15If I put my newly purchased level
3:18on the tray table in front of me.
3:19- I'm gonna take my spirit level onto the plane.
3:21- If my tool shows me that the plane is totally leveled-
3:25- That's proof that the earth is flat.
3:26- Let's go see what happens.
3:32Can somebody explain to me, duty free?
3:35Why perfume?
3:36Why is there so much perfume in duty free?
3:57Four hours on an airplane and I'm back.
4:00My little level experiment worked wonderfully.
4:02The bubble stayed nice and center,
4:04turns out the plane was not dipping its nose
4:07in order to (laughs) make it around the earth.
4:10This is explained by the basics of gravity and physics.
4:14This video is not a debunk of flat earth theory.
4:19That doesn't need to happen!
4:20That shouldn't need to happen!
4:22What this is, is my fascination
4:24with the fact that there is lots of people.
4:27Let's put it this way,
4:27a non zero number of humans
4:31who think the world is flat!
4:32And, they work really hard to prove it.
4:35I wanna understand what sorts of tools
4:37are being used to prove the world is flat.
4:41So, here we go.
4:42(spacey music)
4:49I wonder if I can get some really dramatic
4:51like, conspiracy theory lighting going on here.
4:57I've seen all the evidence.
4:57What if the earth actually is flat?
5:01The plane wasn't dipping, the level was flat.
5:07Okay, I'm kidding!
5:08Let's get into this.
5:09I've been in the weeds,
5:10learning about the flat earth experience,
5:12what people believe and why,
5:14and where it all came from.
5:16And, here's what I've learned.
5:19Number one, flat earthers have become a thing
5:22just in the past couple hundred years.
5:25So, by like 205 BC, you've got these really smart
5:29Greek people making experiments that are
5:31like, observing a globe shaped earth.
5:36Over the next several centuries,
5:37eventually this would just become the widespread thing
5:40among anyone who was doing experimentation on the world.
5:44And eventually, nobody believed the earth was flat.
5:47Even in like the medieval times.
5:49Like, it was a consensus that the earth was a globe.
5:53So in short, flat earthers, weren't a thing
5:56during this time, even though literally,
5:58in elementary school, I was taught that Christopher Columbus
6:01and like, his voyage was somehow to prove
6:03that the earth was round or maybe it was flat.
6:06And that there was like, some debate around that.
6:07That's actually a total legend!
6:09And, I have no idea why I was taught that
6:11in elementary school.
6:12How did that happen?
6:14I actually am genuinely curious, like, how did that happen?
6:16The fact is Christopher Columbus, the Catholic church,
6:19the Spanish patrons, no one thought the earth was flat
6:22but then they became a thing, any sort
6:25of flat earther movement didn't actually come around
6:28ironically until science was really starting to heat up.
6:35During the mid 1800s a huge amount
6:37of scientific breakthrough was happening.
6:39The scientific method was taking off
6:42and huge breakthroughs in biology,
6:44physics, anatomy, and mathematics were taking place.
6:48But, at the time there were also people
6:50who were becoming uncomfortable with how advanced
6:53scientific methods we're getting.
6:56These guys were like, "Hold on a second.
6:57"You have all these fancy new tools to inquire
7:00"into the world and to understand reality.
7:02"But, these tools are getting like,
7:04"too sophisticated and too abstract and theoretical.
7:07"They're becoming too disconnected
7:08"from like, what I can see and understand
7:11"and touch and feel."
7:12They wanted to bring science back
7:14to what it had been for a really long time,
7:16which is that like, a person goes out, uses simple tools
7:20like a telescope to look at the world
7:22and to make conclusions about how the world works.
7:26So, it's the 1800s,
7:27science is like, having it's time.
7:29And, you have these guys, usually from like,
7:31the U.S. and the UK who want to throw out
7:34this growing body of like, amazing advancements in science.
7:38And they start to do experiments.
7:40Here's what those experiments looked like.
7:44(upbeat music)
7:47So, it's the summer of 1838,
7:49England up in the County of Cambridgeshire,
7:53which literally sounds like a place
7:56in the Lord of the rings.
7:58So, it's the summer of 1838.
8:00And, the Atom had just been discovered
8:02and the Doppler effect is like, being flushed out.
8:05And then, you've got this guy,
8:07his name is Samuel Rowbotham,
8:08but he goes by the pseudonym Parallax,
8:10which is actually a pretty dope name.
8:13Like, if I were a DJ, I would totally
8:14go with like, Parallax!
8:16Anyway, Parallax decides,
8:19even though all this science is happening,
8:21he thinks it's time to reopen up the debate
8:24about whether or not the earth is a globe,
8:26which was like literally settled thousands of years earlier.
8:29But he's like, "No, let's do it!"
8:31And, he finds this canal system that is incredibly straight.
8:35This canal goes on for almost 10 kilometers,
8:39like six miles of just a straight line.
8:42This guy says, "If the earth is a globe
8:44"and people say it's 25,000 miles in circumference,
8:47"then if I look at a straight line,
8:49"after the first mile the curvature of the earth would mean
8:52"that the canal would now be eight inches lower.
8:55"After two miles, it would be 32 inches lower.
8:58"After three miles, 72 inches lower."
9:00Meaning like, six feet, almost two meters and so on.
9:04So, he thinks eventually the dip from the curvature
9:06of the earth would be so great
9:07that you could easily observe it.
9:09(puzzling music)
9:14So, he gets in the water,
9:15he puts a telescope right above
9:17the surface of the water
9:18and then puts a boat on the canal
9:20with a one meter tall post on it.
9:23So, what he wants to see is
9:24if the earth is curved, if it's a globe,
9:26this post will start to disappear over the horizon.
9:30So, he does it.
9:31The boat goes away.
9:33It goes the entire six miles
9:35of the canal and it stays in sight the entire time.
9:39It doesn't dip over the horizon.
9:43And, he's stoked!
9:44He's like, "Man, I just proved that the earth is flat.
9:48"And I did it with a telescope and a boat."
9:50Like, screw you science!
9:51Like, I'm making breakthroughs right here in Cambridgeshire!
9:54And then, he writes this book,
9:56where he flushes out this experiment
9:58and several others that he does.
9:59But wait, this experiment's like,
10:01kind of legit, right?
10:03It adds up, like his numbers were all correct
10:05about the circumference and the dip of a curvature.
10:08Like, why didn't it dip?
10:09Like, why was the boat still in sight?
10:11There's nothing wrong with this experiment.
10:12Parallax, got that great name!
10:15Maybe he was on to something!
10:19(beep)
10:20No, no, this is stupid!
10:21This is like a third grade science experiment
10:24in your backyard!
10:24This experiment doesn't take into account
10:26how the natural world actually works
10:28and how light behaves
10:29and refracts based on the different air densities!
10:33This is like stuff that people already figured out.
10:35And like, Parallax is sitting there getting wet
10:37in a canal, like trying to observe this on.
10:41No, this does not prove anything!
10:43But Parallax didn't wanna hear any of this.
10:45He didn't wanna talk about atmospheric refraction
10:48and air density and how light behaves in different media.
10:51Too complicated, too abstract.
10:54You can't touch and feel that stuff.
10:56Instead, Parallax sees science and observing reality
11:00as a much simpler task.
11:02In his book, he says, "Nature speaks to us
11:04"in a peculiar language, in the language of phenomenon.
11:07"She answers at all times the questions
11:10which are put to her."
11:12Just like, go out and like,
11:13put a question to mother nature and she'll answer it.
11:15As scientific methods become more sophisticated,
11:18they become harder for you and me to understand.
11:20Parallax and his canal experiments are
11:22a reaction to all of this.
11:24They are a call for a simplification
11:27of scientific methods and to return of the senses
11:30as the primary force for understanding reality.
11:32He called his method of reductionist pseudoscience
11:36the Zetetic method.
11:37He says that honesty of thought
11:39is to look at truth in the face,
11:41not the side face, but the full front.
11:44Like, just like look at it,
11:45go out and observe it for yourself.
11:47He was among several scientists
11:48and mathematicians at the time
11:50who were on this train of
11:52let's use really simplified reductionist
11:56math and science to prove that
11:58the earth is actually flat.
11:59This argument of the flat earth
12:02flickered for a little bit in the 1800s,
12:04gained a little bit of traction,
12:05but then eventually it died out,
12:07until just a few years ago.
12:09- I refuse to be another vegetable.
12:11Pseudoscience garbage will to me be unacceptable.
12:14Anyone with eyes to see don't have to be susceptible.
12:16Dispose of your globe in the nearest waste receptacle.
12:19- There is no curvature to this earth.
12:20There is no motion to this earth.
12:22- If you just accept the globe model with no understanding
12:25of the flat and no clear evidence for the ball earth,
12:30do you see the problem there?
12:31- Flat earthers are back
12:34and their methods are very similar
12:36to what Parallax was doing in the 1800s.
12:38- And this is data!
12:39This is repeatable, observable, measurable!
12:43- If you take the time to learn, you will change your mind.
12:47There's no doubt.
12:48The only reason people think
12:49they live on a spinning ball is willful ignorance.
12:52- They're still zooming into horizons,
12:54but now they have hoards of visual stuff
12:57to play around with.
12:58They now have airplanes.
13:00They now have satellite imagery to play around with.
13:02They now have the moon landing to dissect.
13:05And now, they're taking levels onto airplanes, like I did.
13:11- Your plane can't go upside down!
13:13Here's the thing, globe hugger!
13:17- Like the flat earthers in the 1800s,
13:19the flat earthers today want to use their own intuition
13:23and senses to understand reality.
13:26And in the process, they reject and ignore
13:29the huge body of science that we all live with today.
13:33- So, people that have physics degrees, astronomy degrees,
13:36they got their degree by regurgitating
13:39what their teacher or the books told them.
13:41- Instead of trigonometry, and telescopes,
13:44and canals, the flat earthers was today use videos
13:47and photos circulated on the internet.
13:50- The isothermal equidistant projection map
13:53that the U.S. GS actually uses
13:55is the flat earth map.
13:57- Wait, did he just say isothermal equidistant projection,
14:00that's like my favorite projection.
14:01Is that the flat earth map?
14:04Don't (silence) with me and projections,
14:05I take them very seriously!
14:08In true internet fashion,
14:09this new current movement of flat earthers
14:12has become just a bunch of bumper sticker type assertions
14:16and images that are really easy to share.
14:18Just like Parallax's experiments,
14:20these methodologies completely ignore
14:24the way the natural world is observed to work
14:27by like, thousands of years of scientific consensus.
14:30But, if you go to the FAQ page of the Flat Earth Society
14:33you'll see what they're after here.
14:35They believe that evidence is, quote,
14:37"Relying on your own senses to discern the true nature
14:41of the world around us."
14:43That's the best evidence.
14:44And in that vein, that's what these people are doing.
14:46- I mean, so in the physics world today,
14:48do they not understand that convex lenses
14:50or fish eye lenses or GoPro add a distorted view?
14:56- So, what have I learned from all of this?
14:58From my understanding, the flat earther movement,
15:00whether from the 1800s or today on the internet
15:03is actually not totally about the shape of the earth.
15:05This movement has a much broader message built into it.
15:09There's a reason why 1984 is like,
15:12in the cannon of the flat earther movement.
15:141984 has nothing to do with the shape of the earth.
15:17What it does have to do with is being skeptical
15:20of big institutions that are probably watching you,
15:23that are probably controlling your life,
15:25that are probably feeding you bad information
15:27to retain power.
15:28- Well, we're not crazy, we're just sick of the lies.
15:30- Here's the thing,
15:31most of the knowledge we have about the natural world
15:35and the universe, we've never seen.
15:38We've never seen exoplanets
15:40or the deep space telescopes
15:42that tell us so much about our universe.
15:44Instead, we read about this stuff.
15:47We benefit from its findings.
15:49We pay our taxes to fund more of it.
15:51Science is like a tall tower
15:53and each individual researcher and institution
15:55adds a little brick to that tower.
15:57Each brick resting on the one below it.
15:59No one person sees or understands all of the bricks.
16:03Instead, we have a system of debate,
16:05reviews, scrutiny that only allows
16:07the most accurate information to be added to the tower.
16:11And honestly, I don't think humans are well suited
16:14to adapt to this very impersonal way
16:17of understanding the world.
16:18We have evolved over millions of years
16:21with our senses as our main driver of survival.
16:23And now, we live in a society that is run by big systems
16:27and impersonal institutions that we will never touch
16:31and feel, much less understand.
16:33And that's why we have people who believe the world is flat,
16:36despite conclusive evidence to the contrary.
16:40This belief is a proxy for a much larger paradigm
16:44that mistrusts anything that you can't touch and feel.
16:46And so, yeah, I'm really sad that only 84% of people
16:50can say with certainty that they've always believed
16:52that the world is a globe.
16:53And that's 64% for younger people, only 64% of people.
16:58Like that, that just blows my mind!
16:59And, it's incredibly sad!
17:00But, despite this belief, this movement,
17:02these conventions, this total lunacy,
17:06science will continue to do its thing.
17:08It will continue to go out, observe the world
17:11with these amazing tools that we have,
17:13come back, debate it, and add to this tower of knowledge
17:17that helps us see the world as it really is.
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18:30Thank you for watching this video!
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18:34See you!
18:35(mellow music)