Burden of Popularisers on Flat Earth
Last Monday, REN TV distinguished itself by showing a program about adherents of flat Earth. I do not want to shake the air with indignation, but this story led me to some thoughts about popularization and pseudoscience in the 21st century. On the eve of the launch of the first satellite, a holiday of scientific knowledge and technical progress, these reflections, I hope, even more to the point.
With a cat even a flat Earth gets better.
Alas, such a program is far from the first and not the last. Previously, with the big hype, entire films like "Mold", "Secrets of Water" and the like were shown. In the late 90s, I remember, on television, I came across a program by Alexander Gordon, supporting the lunar conspiracy. Even seven years ago, the Roscosmos television studio distinguished itself, to put it mildly, with the very ambiguous film Cosmos as Obedience. And about REN TV, I don’t even want to joke about the “new punched bottom” - aliens, conspiracies, chupacabras, prophecies and other doomsday there in abundance every day.
But now broadcast on television does not turn the world. It's funny, but it seems that its main exhaust was the attempts of mobile operators' PR experts to catch the HYIP, arranging a “battle” on Twitter , which was joined by PR specialists from other companies. From the lord of minds, television has turned into a bad YouTube, which is most clearly seen in the same program, where pieces from other people's videos are used.
')
What is curious, the transfer is built quite thought out. The channel seems to distance itself from the plots of the land - the voiceover says that the official science considers the Earth to be spherical, and then begin to quote people who claim the opposite. The presentation of the material, however, is biased - there are no explanations for how real scientists established the Earth's sphericity, but the “evidence” and the direct speech of the landowners take all the time.
Probably the most offensive in the transfer of the fact that the astrologer is designated as "popularizer of science." If the signature "popularizer of science" began to look better than the "astrologer" it is even a good sign, but it is sad when fake popularizers appear. And there are no good ways to protect against this. Formally, like work in an industry or an academic degree, I will cure the first one from the list. Yes, and it does not help - the creator of the "new chronology" Fomenko - a real academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a candidate of technical sciences spoke in a flatland transfer. An organization that unites popularizers will not prevent the emergence of another, pseudoscientific, organization, a living and well-being RANS for a clear example. In general, when consuming informational content, you should always keep in mind the possibility that you are being shoved with nonsense.
In an environment where your blog or channel is done with the press of a single button, there will always be marginals with delusional constructions. The fact that astronomy was returned to schools is great, but in each individual class the quality of teaching depends on the specific teacher. And just to learn the fact that the Earth is round is not worth much - knowledge without understanding will not stand before the “revelations” of various conspiracy theorists. It is necessary not only to know, for example, that the Earth is a geoid, but also to understand how it was established more than two thousand years ago, and what facts of the surrounding world confirm this even now. There are plenty of interesting ways to study the same astronomy, and if the teacher does not show the planetarium program, does not set homework for the Orbiter or the Kerbal Space Program, it is still stuck in the 20th century.
A separate interesting question is that recently social networks have massively replaced the display of content at the time of appearance with filters that reflect what a particular user might like. In such conditions, a person will often receive confirmation of his point of view, and remarkable curiosity and honesty towards himself are needed in order to understand the mistake and change his opinion.
And in the sense of scientific curiosity, I have a serious claim to conspiracy theorists. Pseudoscience is barren in the sense that its followers stop in one place. In the building of this science, each brick is supported by others, and it itself supports the ones located above. And adherents of the flat Earth do not want to build a full-fledged cosmology. As part of a mental experiment, imagine that the Earth is really flat, and you have proved it. But you have to go further! It is necessary to explain gravity, the movement of the moon, the sun and the planets. The difference of visible constellations depending on the latitude and different times of sunrise with a change in longitude. Change of seasons. The propagation of radio waves on the surface of a flat disk. Elementary curiosity and integrity require new research.
Like it or not, the world has changed a long time ago. Instead of the legions of the society "Knowledge" and television, which could not tell about the flat Earth outside the context of the history of astronomy, we now see a sea of ​​contradictory opinions, theories and facts, which always have to keep your head turned on. Check the sources and not trust the authorities, try to compare each new fact with the already known picture of the world. Explain the truth and expose misconceptions in their environment. No need to panic, that people massively stupefied, but the work on education in our age is more than enough. Pseudoscience and obscurantism have always been, but almost exactly sixty years over the globe flew the first satellite - science and education were stronger.
With a cat even a flat Earth gets better.
Alas, such a program is far from the first and not the last. Previously, with the big hype, entire films like "Mold", "Secrets of Water" and the like were shown. In the late 90s, I remember, on television, I came across a program by Alexander Gordon, supporting the lunar conspiracy. Even seven years ago, the Roscosmos television studio distinguished itself, to put it mildly, with the very ambiguous film Cosmos as Obedience. And about REN TV, I don’t even want to joke about the “new punched bottom” - aliens, conspiracies, chupacabras, prophecies and other doomsday there in abundance every day.
But now broadcast on television does not turn the world. It's funny, but it seems that its main exhaust was the attempts of mobile operators' PR experts to catch the HYIP, arranging a “battle” on Twitter , which was joined by PR specialists from other companies. From the lord of minds, television has turned into a bad YouTube, which is most clearly seen in the same program, where pieces from other people's videos are used.
')
What is curious, the transfer is built quite thought out. The channel seems to distance itself from the plots of the land - the voiceover says that the official science considers the Earth to be spherical, and then begin to quote people who claim the opposite. The presentation of the material, however, is biased - there are no explanations for how real scientists established the Earth's sphericity, but the “evidence” and the direct speech of the landowners take all the time.
Probably the most offensive in the transfer of the fact that the astrologer is designated as "popularizer of science." If the signature "popularizer of science" began to look better than the "astrologer" it is even a good sign, but it is sad when fake popularizers appear. And there are no good ways to protect against this. Formally, like work in an industry or an academic degree, I will cure the first one from the list. Yes, and it does not help - the creator of the "new chronology" Fomenko - a real academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a candidate of technical sciences spoke in a flatland transfer. An organization that unites popularizers will not prevent the emergence of another, pseudoscientific, organization, a living and well-being RANS for a clear example. In general, when consuming informational content, you should always keep in mind the possibility that you are being shoved with nonsense.
In an environment where your blog or channel is done with the press of a single button, there will always be marginals with delusional constructions. The fact that astronomy was returned to schools is great, but in each individual class the quality of teaching depends on the specific teacher. And just to learn the fact that the Earth is round is not worth much - knowledge without understanding will not stand before the “revelations” of various conspiracy theorists. It is necessary not only to know, for example, that the Earth is a geoid, but also to understand how it was established more than two thousand years ago, and what facts of the surrounding world confirm this even now. There are plenty of interesting ways to study the same astronomy, and if the teacher does not show the planetarium program, does not set homework for the Orbiter or the Kerbal Space Program, it is still stuck in the 20th century.
A separate interesting question is that recently social networks have massively replaced the display of content at the time of appearance with filters that reflect what a particular user might like. In such conditions, a person will often receive confirmation of his point of view, and remarkable curiosity and honesty towards himself are needed in order to understand the mistake and change his opinion.
And in the sense of scientific curiosity, I have a serious claim to conspiracy theorists. Pseudoscience is barren in the sense that its followers stop in one place. In the building of this science, each brick is supported by others, and it itself supports the ones located above. And adherents of the flat Earth do not want to build a full-fledged cosmology. As part of a mental experiment, imagine that the Earth is really flat, and you have proved it. But you have to go further! It is necessary to explain gravity, the movement of the moon, the sun and the planets. The difference of visible constellations depending on the latitude and different times of sunrise with a change in longitude. Change of seasons. The propagation of radio waves on the surface of a flat disk. Elementary curiosity and integrity require new research.
Like it or not, the world has changed a long time ago. Instead of the legions of the society "Knowledge" and television, which could not tell about the flat Earth outside the context of the history of astronomy, we now see a sea of ​​contradictory opinions, theories and facts, which always have to keep your head turned on. Check the sources and not trust the authorities, try to compare each new fact with the already known picture of the world. Explain the truth and expose misconceptions in their environment. No need to panic, that people massively stupefied, but the work on education in our age is more than enough. Pseudoscience and obscurantism have always been, but almost exactly sixty years over the globe flew the first satellite - science and education were stronger.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/370861/
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