I cringe thinking that there might be conspiracy that forms from this - “His rocket was sabotaged to prevent him from finding the truth.”
I think there is a real lesson about human reason that people that have flown in plains flying > 30000 ft donated money to someone trying to get to 5000 to see the world. Whether we believe in science or not, at our core we are completely irrational creatures
What a waste. Even if he’d seen that the earth isn’t flat, who would believe him?
If he says he needs to see it for himself, then it follows that others wouldn’t believe until they too saw the round earth.
most of the scientific beliefs that an individual holds are not arrived at by direct experience, but instead imparted by a perceived authority and that everyone is capable of adopting erroneous views in the course of learning;
Which is to say that this guy was probably closer to doing science than most people.
I did experiments that proved the curvature of the earth when I was a kid. It’s not hard.
it is fundamental to science to challenge perceived authorities and to seek out empirical evidence in order to revise/discard established beliefs;
The Flat Earth was dicarded centuries, no, millenia ago because of empirical evidence. It is possible that the current theories are wrong, but they are far less wrong than Flat Earth is.
That’s entirely untrue: there is a huge about of great science being done by “citizen scientists”. Rather: " was never going to contribute to a scientific endeavor that matched his overweening ego."
Then they buy rockets from Crazy Mike’s Discount Rocket Emporium.
Maybe that was his plan, sell rockets or trips to the other nonbelievers (or believers, depending on the viewpoint).
And most commercial aircraft cruise closer to 25,000 feet.
It goes without saying that there is overwhelming evidence to show that the earth is not flat. The larger point is that virtually all of our personal scientific beliefs are delivered to us by cultural authorities than by objectively interpreted direct experience and so we are all incredibly capable of being misled.
Indeed.
Any cross country or trans oceanic flight would have topped-out at an altitude 7x higher than his suicide bottle-rocket.
The story of Columbus included flat earth, if I remember properly.
But a few years ago I read that Washington Irving had written a story about Columbus, and that gave us the imagery that many of us know. And it included a bit about flat earth.
I’m sure the piece is online somewhere, likely at archive.org.
His manager has explicitly stated it was a press stunt he cooked up to attract funding and sponsorship from conspiracy theorists.
Hughes does seem to have been into conspiracy and he’s made some statements that edge right up on right wing conspiracy. Seems to have been savvy enough to keep it vague.
Blast off in a steam-powered rocket…or take a flight to see the curvature of the earth. hmmm…
Imagine how much money he could’ve raised if he convinced evangelicals he needed a rocket to deliver a message to Jesus.
At least it’s Steampunk.
I completely get what you are saying… I have never seen the curvature of the Earth and any test I could perform would still be limited by my ignorance of other disciplines.
But I’m going to stop short at stating this guy is doing any kind of important punk science. He was a grifter, seeking financial gain by exploiting and growing ignorance, and denouncing all contrary evidence as lies. He wasn’t in search of the truth.
The story reminds me of sci-fi writing and the movie The Matrix. The universe is more complex than we can understand which requires a belief system that overlaps with reality.
Hughes was into steam powered rockets. Basically big pressure vessels charged up via a boiler, then vented for propulsion. Pretty similar to Myth Buster’s long obsession with launching exploding water heaters, but more controlled.
Seems to be a minor just for shits end of model rocketry. Not the sort of thing that’s ever going to break atmosphere or be safe enough to ever sell.
Hughes real goal appears to have been setting height records for manned steam rockets.
So where’s the line? What about athletes that are injured or die? What about motor sports?
