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A man is about to launch himself in a homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat
- rebuilder 9y agoSounds like he wanted to build a rocket and figured the flat-earth schtick would get him attention and funding.
- callumlocke 9y agoYep. If this guy really believed in a powerful conspiracy to convince everyone the Earth is round, it would be very strange to publicise his plan to expose it. It's weird how many commentators are taken in by an obvious publicity stunt.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- soneil 9y agoPretty much exactly that. He tried kickstarter, reached $310, and then turned to the flat-earthers. Their GoFundMe uses the terms "awareness" and "sponsorship". His stated goals (headlining the kickstarter) are to become famous, and set a world record, and the GoFundMe makes no claims other than what size their logo will be. The last paragraph of the GoFundMe promises the story is going to be run by the AP. For the flat-earthers, this is the actual goal of the rocket - to get the story into the press. And it worked. $8k bought them nationwide coverage. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1441636269/mission-rock-it-stage-i-the-1-mile-manned-rocket-j https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1441636269/mission-rock... https://www.gofundme.com/flat-earth-community-rocket-launch https://www.gofundme.com/flat-earth-community-rocket-launch
- sddfd 9y agoWhat worries me most is how so many people can believe in obviously stupid ideas. One would assume that some basic education is enough to debunk such crackpot ideas yourself. On the other hand, saying the Earth is flat and scientists, media, school books, etc have been lying to me is a testimony to big distrust in society. We should all be asking ourselves where such big distrust is coming from.
- caio1982 9y agoInequality; it makes people feel deeply abandoned, which leads to distrust in the system, that fuels lunacy and fanaticism.
- sheldor 9y agoVery true, but one also needs to be illiterate to believe such things. And in western countries where people get to go to school (most of them at least), it seems absurd. So, the only thing left to assume is that they make things for popularity and/or funding.
- icebraining 9y agoone also needs to be illiterate to believe such things Certainly not. You just have to not believe what you read.
- sheldor 9y agoIf someone believes that the earth is flat then he automatically believes that all the pilots in the world know it (and never speak about it). That is illiteracy to say the least. You certainly don't believe everything you read, but well established knowledge from centuries ago isn't something some lunatic came up with. So if someone dismisses gravity as a hoax, are we to support him because he is a critical thinker and start jumping off cliffs trying to fly?
- lloeki 9y ago> And in western countries where people get to go to school (most of them at least), it seems absurd. When schools make a duty of learning by rote instead of learning to learn and exercise thoughtful criticism, only distrust can emerge.
- michaelbrooks 9y agoIt would be easier and safer if he just sent an air balloon strapped with a Go Pro up. He would get the footage he needs to prove his bogus claims are wrong and he would be safe on the ground. You are right though, we need to understand how so many people still believe that the Earth is flat.
- shroom 9y agoNo matter the outcome this will not end well. About flat-Earth theory some arguments may seem valid but how wouldn’t it be easier by starting off explaining how something, now, everyday like GPS or satelites would work if the Earth was flat?
- sddfd 9y agoYour treating this as a scientific issue, but it's not. This is is social issue: there are people that just don't believe anything anymore.
- jacquesm 9y agoNo, you've got that backwards. There are people that will believe anything.
- pjc50 9y ago.. so long as it's not the thing that those other people believe. Tribalism over reality.
- zaarn 9y agoWell, they believe one thing and then they claw onto that belief like their life depends on it.
- marcosdumay 9y agoAlmost like if it was a religion.
- giomasce 9y agoIt's not about believing everything or nothing, I think: it is more about how to filter things you believe. Believing something is a way to be part of a group, and it seems to me that most humans (including me) tend to feel better when they are recognized as a part of a group. Conspiration theories offer an easy way to feel part of a very well identified group (made even stronger by the sensation of being a somewhat repressed minority): for some people this can be much more rewarding than accepting the rigor of actual science.
- taneq 9y ago1800 feet seems like too small a payoff for strapping yourself into a home-made missile. Has he considered renting a Cessna or something?
- abainbridge 9y agoOr walking up a hill.
- ljf 9y agoCan you even see the curve of the earth form there? I've flown paragliders to over 2000 meters and I don't think I could spot the curve from there... Also how about watching a ship come over the horizon?
- brndnmtthws 9y agoI wish him the very best in his endeavor, and hope that he doesn't hurt himself.
- kelvin0 9y agoThat's the great thing about these fringe groups: any outcome of this project will continue to serve there 'beliefs'. Most likely the rocket might not even get off the ground, or may explode in mid-air, or injure the pilot gravely in a rough landing. In all cases they can blame the 'elite' and 'freemasons' for colluding and hindering/sabotaging their efforts to discover the 'truth'. I have to admit I do admire his 'brass balls' if he does go through with this.
- tom_mellior 9y agoPrevious discussion from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15751398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15751398 Previous discussion from today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15760481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15760481 They are all based on slightly different articles, but they don't seem to be adding much to each other.
- justboxing 9y agoActually 6 different posts and discussions over the past 48 hours all on the same canonical story. See => https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Earth%20flat%20rocket&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Earth%20flat%20rocket&sort=byP... Why does this even belong on HN? Why are people obsessed with this onion-esque gimmick?
- tom_mellior 9y agoIt's about (pseudo-)science and rockets... I guess it is a good fit for HN, otherwise it would not have been voted onto the front page three times in two days. On the other hand, the people upvoting it are apparently not the ones who pay attention to what was recently on the front page?
- JulianMorrison 9y agoUpside: discovers the Earth is round. Downside: only retains that knowledge rather briefly before himself becoming flat.
- Havoc 9y ago>walks up to the engine and pokes it with a stick Slightly concerned about the engineering approach
- 1_player 9y agoStick-poking, kicking and wrenching are popular and underestimated hardware engineer debugging tricks. https://youtu.be/dEkOT3IngMQ?t=28s https://youtu.be/dEkOT3IngMQ?t=28s
- johansch 9y agoThis seems to be the video mentioned in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jU_forLM_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jU_forLM_s
- lerie82 9y agoSo he wanted to use other people's money to build a rocket and waste his life. Nice.
- lerie82 9y agoSo it's my turn, I don't believe social media is popular, I need funding to build a social network.
- KillerRAK 9y agoIsn't this kind of how evolution works? Nature is just running its course -- nothing much to see here.
- interfixus 9y agoLet us not forget: There are plenty of people out there for whom the Earth is, yeah, okay, round, not really because of some deeply held conviction or as a result of some deep cogitation on the subject, but simply because they have been told. And if someone one day tells them something else in a reasonably persuasive tone of voice, well, then perhaps that is the way it is. Not a few of those people, assuming they hear this story, will come away from it with a vague idea that those space and rocket guys aren't really all much that in agreement about the round-or-flat thing. [Edit: missing word]
- mcv 9y agoBeing wrong is in itself not a big problem. Believing what you're told about something that's not going to affect you anyway, is no big deal. The problem with flat earthers is that they put a lot of effort in being wrong, and try to convince others to be wrong, and that the people who are right are all liars conspiring against them. It would be nice if they put that time and energy into something more productive.
- kakaorka 9y agoSeems like there's a lot of competition for the Darwin award of the year.
- glorkk 9y agoSo... why not launch a drone mounted with a gopro? Do they also believe the government is hijaking those and editing the footage?
- Shantee 9y agoI am French and I haven't heard of flat earther until recently.I don't think anybody in Europe believe such things. That's just too weird. I wonder if there's really a significant amount of people who believe it or of it just some kind of buzz word..
- a254613e 9y ago"Hughes only recently converted to flat-Eartherism, after struggling for months to raise funds for his follow-up flight over the Mojave." What a coincidence. I do wonder if he manages to fly high enough to see for himself that the earth is not flat, whether any other people that supported him would believe him or would they just dismiss it as another conspiracy theory. If he's in it for the money though, he'll probably say something along the lines of the flight being inconclusive at best.
- DavideNL 9y agoSo if he doesn't return alive, will his friends think the government sabotaged his rocket to prevent the truth from being exposed?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ManuelKiessling 9y agoHere's a thought I had for quite a while now: Find the most notorious flat earther who also happens to have a very strong reputation in the flat earther community. Launch a Kickstarter to collect enough money to send him to space (like all those billionaires do). I'd hate to make a moron such an awesome present, but it could convert a lot of other morons.
- mcv 9y agoI'm not sure they'd allow him in space if he's likely to deny it and not believe the dangers of the vacuum just outside the window.
- lucozade 9y ago> but it could convert a lot of other morons I think you may be underestimating the sheer tenacity of these beliefs. I mean, what makes you think that super flat earther wasn't an Illuminati stooge all along? BTW if you do decide to do this, I happen to be a very strong believer that the earth is flat, there's no such thing as space etc etc. In case you struggle for a candidate...
- rmu09 9y ago1800 feet, that is, like, 600m? There are even cliffs that are double that height. Why not just hike up a mountain? In New Zealand or Hawaii it should be possible to go from sea-level to above 3000m in one push. Or take a balloon?
- gremlinsinc 9y agoThis guy belongs in a mental institution, he is seriously deranged and about to cause harm to himself and/or others.
- gaelow 9y agoand Trump is POTUS. Welcome to 2017.
- eccstartup 9y agoEventually, he proved himself a great foolish rocket engineer.