The Flat Earth Theory

in LeoFinance3 years ago

flatearth6209791_1920.jpg
Hate to break it to you, but the Earth IS flat. Now, I’ve said it.

Hate to break it to you even more, but the Earth is round too.

How come, you asked? It’s either flat, or round, make up your mind, Dragos!

It All Depends On The Context

It all depends on how far out you zoom from your current point of view.

If all you can zoom out is just a few dozens of kilometers, the Earth is indeed flat, no question about that. I would say even if you zoom out for a few hundreds of kilometers, like being on top of a really big mountain, the Earth will still be flat.

But should you ascend to 40-50km, something will change: you will start seeing the edges curbing down. The Earth will suddenly cease being flat and it will become round.

Every truth is bound by its context. There is no absolute truth, just the most “adapted to the current context” truth.

For millennia, Earth was ok being flat, sitting on top of a huge tortoise. For that context, it was ok. It didn’t actually create any problems. Even the broader context, like the sun, the moon, the stars, all was decently predictable. Stars and planets ephemeris calculated thousands of years ago are still accurate today. Back then, I remind you, the Earth was flat, planets and stars were gods and we didn’t invent flying yet. In that context, Earth flatness or roundness was simply insignificant.

But things changed. We were able to zoom out more. We were able to enlarge our points of view. We learned that it’s not the Sun circling around the Earth, but the other way around. We learned that if we keep sailing West, eventually we will appear back to the same place, this time coming from East. Suddenly, our predictability of the world was challenged by the assumption that the Earth is flat. It just didn’t click anymore. We needed a different truth. So, we eventually learned that in the new context, with the new information that we acquired, reality was different.

In the initial, minimal context, Earth continues to be flat, that truth is still holding on, but in the broader, enlarged context, Earth can’t be anything more than round.

There’s No Ultimate Truth

It’s just truth that we can infer with the information we have. Accepting this will generate a few surprising consequences:

  • you will not deem “stupid” people believing partial truths, because you will (hopefully) understand they are reasoning from a limited place, they didn’t zoom out yet (for reasons that we may not be aware of). For their knowledge, their current truth is enough.
  • you will understand your truth is not “complete”, it’s just as “complete” as the total knowledge of your current context. Should that knowledge change, the truth will change too. Just imagine how mind boggling was for those sailors to realize they came back from were they left, without falling down the edge at any point of their journey. Imagine that “a-ha” moment.
  • there is always room to zoom out. Even if you are at a point where you feel in balance, where the current reality doesn’t cause any problems, it doesn’t mean “this is it”, and your shit will be predictable for ever. It just means you’re in a simplified context, where all your knowledge clicks, and everything else is insignificant, just like Earth flatness our roundness was insignificant in a minimal context, thousands of years ago. But hey, there are things we’re still not aware of, that will soon be significant, the more we expand our circle of knowledge.

So, be prepared to be outsmarted. It will happen, eventually.

Image by ParallelVision from Pixabay

Initially published on my blog.

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

Sort:  

Expanding your view makes a world of difference. Many ancient cultures worked out the Earth could not be flat, e.g. by sailing long distances. They even measured how big it was. The modern 'flat Earth' thing seems to be a mix of contrariness and belief in grand conspiracies. It is not made clear who stands to gain from a 'ball Earth'. Maybe the globe makers are behind it. Some of the 'flatties' cannot seem to conceive of how gravity might work, but they are happy enough to use electronics based on quantum effects and medicines based on genetic research. Some of their 'proofs' are just laughable. I should really give up debating with them.

!PIZZA

@dragosroua! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @steevc.

Have you voted for Pizza teams Hive witness (pizza.witness)? (3/10)

How about the theory according to which the Earth is actually placed on various layers of turtles? I wonder whether some people still believe in it, heh. :D

Yeah, I was mentioning that too. It's a question of how well you know your context. For our current knowledge, the turtles theories is unsustainable. But I reckon many of the things we take for granted now will be proved unsustainable as we gain more knowledge of the context.

The earth is very very small as it ends behind my horizon. And the moon is tiny, just look at it!

Precisely :)

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

The one on top of a tortoise was not earth, though. 😁

For us, obviously, because we know better. But for them I guess it was :)

To quote a very popular modern philosopher, entrepreneur and cryptomancer: "In hindsight, it was inevitable".

But we don't always have the luxury of hindsight.

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

I already knew the "there's no absolute truth part," but giving Flat Earth as the example is really cool!

!LUV !PIZZA

@dragosroua! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @ahmadmanga.

Did you know PIZZA has a very active community Discord? (1/10)

<><

<><

LUV

Connect

Trade


@dragosroua, you've been given LUV from @ahmadmanga.

Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. (1/5)

There are few peoples who still believe in that earth is flat, but they are failed to explain about deepth of subjects and deny earth is round. Knowledge, truth and trust are define very well.

Few words with !LUV.

<><

<><

LUV

Connect

Trade


@sheikh27, you've been given LUV from @kushtia.

Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. LUV changes soon. (1/5)

Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!

Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!

Support Ecency
Vote for Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more