> At least not in the context of helping them come to a more correct belief about the shape of our planet Right, I should have been more clear. I've spoken to

> At least not in the context of helping them come to a more correct belief about the shape of our planet Right, I should have been more clear. I've spoken to these folks not trying to change their minds, but to attempt to understand human psychology better. Among the various large scale conspiracy theories out there, flat eartherism has, in my opinion, some useful properties. Did the US Government fly missiles into the world trade centers? No...but proof to the contrary isn't trivial. How can I prove the world is round? Well, it costs some money, but it's trivial. At the moment, Air New Zealand 30 is flying direct between Auckland, NZ and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The flight time will be just under 12 hours. The aircraft is a Boeing 777-200ER. This is a fast flying aircraft, but it's not supersonic, which it would have to be in order to fly between NZ and AR in 12 hours across a flat earth. Almost anybody with a few thousand dollars can conduct this experiment. So, I have studied flat-eartherism as a way to study some fundamental natures of human thought. I've run into true believer flat-earthers who were intelligent, (mostly) open minded, charismatic and curious. I think that every human brain is packed with irrational beliefs and thoughtful fallacies. Even the best, most clear thinking of us is, I believe, saddled with (nearly) unbreakable irrational thought processes. For most of us, they're not very obvious. This isn't an implicit call to give up on the goal of embracing rational thought in all things. Far from it. For me, at least, understanding that I have such weaknesses hidden inside is an even stronger motivation to do everything possible to think and act clearly.