4 ms·

A new conspiracy theory claims that the government or whatever is lying about the distance from the earth to the sun. I think for less intelligent people the si

A new conspiracy theory claims that the government or whatever is lying about the distance from the earth to the sun. I think for less intelligent people the size of the universe and its objects is too much to handle

mistermann 4y ago
I think it could be argued that in certain specific scenarios, this shortcoming (in normal scenarios) can be advantageous, such as thinking outside the boundaries or constraints of a box, where the constraints happen to be incorrect but culturally axiomatic and are thus insurmountable for normal, "proper" thinking people. Having observed many thousands of discussions about "conspiracy theory" or "just wrong" (but the normal person can't explain why it is wrong, in fact) topics, I am very confident in this belief. And now having also had some similar conversations with ChatGPT, which is able to overcome with ease many mistakes that humans make, yet cannot overcome others, I am even more convinced.
- themitigating 4y ago
  Thinking outside the box sounds like coming up with new ways of doing things or being creative. I don't see how this is related to conspiracy theories, people are just mostly just hearing them from other people
junofan 4y ago
Here’s NASA misstating the distance between the Earth and the Sun: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/YOSS_Act1.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/YOSS_Act1.pdf Obviously the Earth’s orbit is noncircular. Is that what you mean?
- labster 4y ago
  At some astronomical scales numbers like this don’t matter. Sure, if you’re doing parallax calculations you need precise orbits, but most of the time you can assume π = 3.
- andsoitis 4y ago
  Misstatement is different from lying, no?
- themitigating 4y ago
  This says the distance is 93m miles. That's about what the distance is I'm referring to people who think it's like a few thousand feet above the earth.

mistermann 4y ago

I think it could be argued that in certain specific scenarios, this shortcoming (in normal scenarios) can be advantageous, such as thinking outside the boundaries or constraints of a box, where the constraints happen to be incorrect but culturally axiomatic and are thus insurmountable for normal, "proper" thinking people. Having observed many thousands of discussions about "conspiracy theory" or "just wrong" (but the normal person can't explain why it is wrong, in fact) topics, I am very confident in this belief. And now having also had some similar conversations with ChatGPT, which is able to overcome with ease many mistakes that humans make, yet cannot overcome others, I am even more convinced.

themitigating 4y ago
Thinking outside the box sounds like coming up with new ways of doing things or being creative. I don't see how this is related to conspiracy theories, people are just mostly just hearing them from other people

junofan 4y ago

Here’s NASA misstating the distance between the Earth and the Sun: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/YOSS_Act1.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/YOSS_Act1.pdf Obviously the Earth’s orbit is noncircular. Is that what you mean?

labster 4y ago
At some astronomical scales numbers like this don’t matter. Sure, if you’re doing parallax calculations you need precise orbits, but most of the time you can assume π = 3.
andsoitis 4y ago
Misstatement is different from lying, no?
themitigating 4y ago
This says the distance is 93m miles. That's about what the distance is I'm referring to people who think it's like a few thousand feet above the earth.