Flat Earthers to Elon Musk: Mars is round, silly
Commentary: In response to a humorous Elon Musk tweet, the Flat Earth Society stuns the world.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Wait, what did they say?
It might currently feel as if we're all about to fall off the edge of a cliff, but that doesn't mean the Earth is flat.
Still, celebrities such as rapper B.o.B and NBA star Kyrie Irving -- humorously, it transpired -- have raised the possibility that it might be.
On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk thought he'd expand the world's thinking on the subject.
The fact that there are still people unconvinced by basic facts must be mesmerizing to a man whose intention is to send rockets to outer space.
To Mars, indeed.
So Musk posed a simple question.
Why is there no Flat Mars Society!?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2017
It's surely a fair and funny question.
If we can't believe our space travelers who send back pictures of a remarkably spherical Earth, why should we believe anything from scientists who've never been anywhere near Mars?
I mean, I saw "The Martian" and Mars looked pretty flat to me.
Just as I tortured my mind over this, in stepped the Flat Earth Society. No, these aren't some weird people who speculate willy-nilly on Twitter. These are serious people. I know this because they're Twitter-verified and they're a dot-org.
The Flat Earth Society replied assertively to Musk.
Hi Elon, thanks for the question. Unlike the Earth, Mars has been observed to be round.
— Flat Earth Society (@FlatEarthOrg) November 28, 2017
We hope you have a fantastic day!
It has? By whom?
Still, once the Flat Earth Society had responded to Musk, it fielded more questions from the fascinated.
Asked how we can be sure that the Earth and Mars aren't just flat objects that we mistakenly see as being round, the Society responded with a tinge of doubt.
It's a hypothetical possibility, but not one that's backed by any evidence to date.
— Flat Earth Society (@FlatEarthOrg) November 29, 2017
And when another Twitterite wondered why, of all the planets in the world, Earth would be the only flat one, there came a reply worthy of the finest politician.
We don't know. Why would the Earth be the only (known) celestial body to harbour intelligent life? Perhaps it's unique, or perhaps we need to keep looking?
— Flat Earth Society (@FlatEarthOrg) November 29, 2017
Yes, there is so much we don't know.
We don't know why people believe some of the strangest things.
I have friends who believe that the San Francisco 49ers are an excellent team.
I have a very good friend who insists that if you pour Tabasco on any food, it will taste better.
I even know someone who believes Mark Zuckerberg is the greatest CEO of the 21st century.
So just because some NASA scientist might claim that Mars is an oblate spheroid, you're still free to believe what you want.
And become Twitter-verified and a dot-org.
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