Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that’s taken over our lives.
Roundly criticizing Flat-Earthers.
Michael Campanella/Getty ImagesHe’s had to live through the scientific opinions of rapper B.o.B and NBA star Kyrie Irving.
They both seem to lean toward the Earth being flat, as opposed to that round, colorful thing that spacemen keep photographing.
And still Neil deGrasse Tyson crusades for what seems to be obvious — that the Earth isn’t a pancake.
His problem, it seems, is explaining to doubters why this is obvious.
So he’s just released a “Star Talk” video in which he tries to make it simple. Or as simple as an astrophysicist can.
Accompanied by comedian Chris Nice, Tyson explains that the shadows cast by the Earth during a lunar eclipse are never straight-edged. They’re curved.
He tries something even simpler, by explaining that if Nice walked east and kept walking, he’d eventually come back to where he started from the west.
Oh, it doesn’t really matter how simple his explanations get, there will be those who continue to insist that we live on a plank.
So, in the last couple of minutes of the video, he expressed his frustrations fully.
“For me, the fact that there’s a rise of Flat Earthers is evidence of two things,” he said. “One, we live in a country that protects free speech.”
The second reason? “We live in a country with a failed educational system.”
What’s wrong with it? “Our system needs to train you not only what to know, but how to think about information, knowledge and evidence.”
It’s a quaint view, given the temptation of — and even dependence on — alternative facts that seems to be the norm these days.
“If you don’t have that kind of training, you’d run around and believe… anything,” he concluded, looking a touch exhausted by the ignorance of some of his fellow citizens.
Well, yes. There are, indeed, many people wandering around, fully prepared to believe anything. Why, a recent study showed that fake news moves far more quickly around Twitter than real news does.
Mind you, having a good grasp of facts simply isn’t easy, no matter what level of education you have.
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