![]() The hotel is hosting the second annual Flat Earth International Conference – an event that Davidson himself founded and organized. It was readily apparent that the flat earthers were keen to separate knowledge from scientific institutions.But not any more. The audience and the panel of flat earthers took exception to this, noting that “now we’ve got the internet and mass communication … we’re not reliant on what the mainstream are telling us in newspapers, we can decide for ourselves”. ![]() A particular point of contention occurred when one of the physicists pleaded with the audience to avoid trusting YouTube and bloggers. This was something of a recurring theme throughout the weekend in Birmingham, and was especially apparent when four flat earthers debated three physics PhD students. With the increased voice afforded by social media to a wide range of views, knowledge has been increasingly decentralised, and competing narratives have emerged. 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”.ĭespite early claims, from as far back as HG Wells’s W orld Brainessays in 1936, that a worldwide, shared resource of knowledge, such as the internet, would create peace, harmony and a common interpretation of reality, it appears that quite the opposite has happened. 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. Yes, flat earthers do seem to place a lot of emphasis and priority on scientific methods and, in particular, on observable facts. ![]() There was also a lot of team-building, networking, debating, workshops – and scientific experiments. It was well attended, and wasn’t just three days of speeches and YouTube clips (though, granted, there was a lot of this). 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. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |