Q. What is some of your favorite geeky media?
Chuck: I love Dr. Who. I love Star Wars. I love Star Trek. I love astronomy. Like, I'm more into actual science. I'm like a real science nerd, but I'm a fringe science nerd so I like things like Electric Universe Theory. I'm currently interested in the Bedford Level experiment, which is an experiment in the late 1800s which proved the earth is flat.
Q. Whoa. That's like… psych!
Chuck: I know! It's blowing my mind. And actually I'm going to try and get Grant to do this myth-busting thing with me. Like, because water goes to level, right? So water is always level. And the earth curves at eight inches per mile and the square of the distance. So that means that at five miles there should be almost a twelve foot bulge in the water. In a twelve mile stretch or five mile stretch, you shouldn't be able to see from one end to the other, like if you were in a canal.
So the Bedford Level experiment was in a canal. And it had one person standing at one point in the canal, and then boats, rafts, stretched out with flags—five foot flags—on them. And that person could see all the flags through the telescope.
Q. Whaaaaaat?
Chuck: I know! The earth is flat! It's totally flat! And like, some of the pictures they show… for example, from Iron Mt. in New York, you can see the skyline of New York and the skyline of Philadelphia. They're 120 miles apart, and it is perfectly flat between them.
I actually think that what we live in is more akin to a video game. And when you talk about the reality in a video game… Well, a video game has one reality when you're playing it as a player, and has another reality when you're on the sort of topographical map region of it, and then another reality when you're the programmer. So it's both flat and round. You know, it's round when you go up into space because that's how you see it, and then it's actually flat when it's rendering in real time for you.
Q. That's really fascinating. I'm going to have to go look that up now.
Chuck: Oh, it's great! Look up the "200 Proofs that the Earth is Flat." I saw it and I was like, "My mind is blown! The earth might be flat!"
