bigpzone/YoutubeUnfortunately, the Flat Earth theory is still being thrown about, it seems to be outliving most fads and crazy theories and, remarkably, might even be gaining followers.
Despite many, many people calling out flat-earthers, from television hosts to physicists, there are still people out there who are intent on defying common logic by believing the Earth is flat, and insisting the ’round Earth conspiracy’ has been orchestrated by the likes of NASA and other government agencies.
Not ones to let such a wild debate pass them by, Google has now hilariously stirred the pot by trolling flat-earthers in their own subtle way.
PixabayI’m sure we’ve all used Google Translate at one point or another, from innocently looking up a phrase you don’t know to, perhaps, trying to impress someone by telling them you speak fluent French.
So picture the scene, you’ve got chatting to someone you like, it’s going well and you’re hitting it off. You decide it’s time to drop some seriously impressive facts about yourself: 1. You speak French. 2. You believe the Earth is flat. (Really, the ‘facts’ should have been you’re a bit of a liar and a bit deluded about concepts of the Earth’s shape, but anyway…)
Just to make sure you don’t make a massive fool of yourself (as if you needed any more help) you pop over to Google Translate to check your translation of ‘I am a flat-earther’ and Google itself decides to call you out.
GoogleIn a hilarious twist, Google has made it so if you type ‘I’m a flat-earther’ and translate it into French, it comes up with ‘Je suis un fou’.
French speakers will be a step ahead here…
If you then click the arrows between the two sides and flip the phrases round, the English becomes ‘I’m a crazy person’. Savage, Google, savage.
GoogleFlat-earthers aren’t really helping themselves much, though, are they.
Recently, the UK held its first Flat Earth Convention where around 200 self-confessed flat-earthers shared their opinions on the shape of our planet.
One of said theories came directly from the mind of musician, Darren Nesbit, who claimed that we are not living on a spherical Earth but instead in a sort-of Pac-Man world, according to the Mirror.
Daz Nez/YouTubeMore specifically Mr Nesbit said:
We know that continuous east-west travel is possible. One logical possibility for those who are truly free thinkers is that space-time wraps around and we get a Pac-Man effect.
He added:
No matter where you live on this supposed ball, you seem to live right on top of it.
Someone should be living on the side of the ball, with a perfectly vertical landscape, and people should be living underneath it, walking upside down.
Nesbit also appeared on This Morning alongside two other theorists where they left Holly and Phil truly mind-boggled with their theories, suggesting that astronaut Tim Peak was actually ‘in a Hollywood studio-type thing.’
Check out the interview here:
No wonder Google decided to troll them.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.