Recently I watched a National Geographic clip on YouTube featuring Flat Earth conspiracy theorists (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06bvdFK3vVU) called Flat Earth vs. Round Earth. The title is overly generous since there is no contest in the Earth being a sphere, something that has long been well-established fact. Even discussing it is a moot point, like debating whether or not fire burns. The clip features what you would expect: Flat Earthers proclaim their idea, offer poor explanations for believing it, and, when shown simple proof that they are mistaken, disbelieve the evidence and continue on with their conspiracy theory. And it IS a conspiracy theory; in their mind, the lie is perpetuated because the people in power wish it to be. Of course it is.
 
Aside from the sheer lunacy here, I’d like to know who would gain from such a lie. Globe manufacturers and cartographers? Holy shit, what morons. I never would’ve dreamed we’d be dealing with such rampant, easily disproven ignorance in the 21st century.
 
The Flat Earth movement is just one part of the current rise in anti-intellectualism and assault on science in this country. That isn’t a conspiracy theory. Nearly every day one reads about lawmakers trying to shoehorn Creationism into schools to be taught as fact, or the anti-vaccine crusade that is having real consequences as seen in renewed measles outbreaks. Peddling ignorance and pseudoscience has always been profitable but now it is affecting those of us who don’t subscribe to such nonsense. It continues to build among a minority of the population who still believes in a god but doubts the findings of evolution, doubts that humans walked on the Moon, or refuses to accept that our universe is 13.8 billion years old.
 
It’s become like a snowball rolling downhill, growing larger with each year despite humanity possessing more access to knowledge than at any time in history. And in the Unites States of all places, which despite long-term downward trends remains the powerhouse of science and education in the world.
 
On one hand it could be just another harmless trend. On the other, it could be representative of a segment of the population who refuse to accept modernity even while enjoying its benefits. The very act of using a mobile phone or anything utilizing GPS technology should invalidate their Flat Earth fantasies right there, but it doesn’t. It’s like driving a car but denying that the laws of thermodynamics or magnetism work. But there’s a deeper disconnect going on here. Some people cannot process that the universe is infinite, at least in human terms. Some cannot reconcile their current form, homo sapien, with evolution and our genetic relation to practically every living thing on this planet. Like one Flat Earther said in the YouTube clip, they believe it’s flat because they’re not just monkeys running around on the surface. Another proclaimed that the Sun and Moon are much smaller and the stars are mere motes of light in the sky. That there is nothing else out there. I suppose all of those Hubble images are just psychedelic art.
 
I’ve encountered young children with more complex fantasies than this.
 
What I see here is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of not being able to process such revelations, some of which have been in our corpus of knowledge for decades, if not centuries. The modern world continues to change at a rapid pace and these people are unable to deal with it. It’s little more than a cult that loves to be the misunderstood underdog, and that fetishizes perceived victimhood (they resent the rest of us thinking they are idiots). It’s also incredibly lazy, creating a comfort zone for those who cannot or will not comprehend the vast universe around us. Expressing such a belief is ultimately a denial of what our species has achieved. Our civilization has managed to launch humans into space and these endeavors have in turn returned irrefutable proof that we dwell on a sphere. But all of those achievements are denied as fakes, lies created by those who don’t want us ‘to know what’s really going on’. I’ve got news for them: there are no powerful masterminds controlling the world. One look at our current travesty of a president is proof of that.
 
I’m willing to bet many of these Flat Earthers believe other irrational things as well. I wonder how many of them are religious fundamentalists, how many are anti-vaxxers. How many of them deny climate change. I’m not a betting man, but I’d guess the probability is high. You can’t convince these people, either. Engagement with them is pointless. The more evidence they are given, the more they mentally dig in, the more persecuted they feel, and the more they think you’re part of the big cover-up. This is true of any conspiracy theory advocate, from dedicated UFO believers to right wingers in fear of the so-called ‘Deep State’. There is no meaningful discussion to be had.
 
If that comes across as intolerant, so be it. I’m not in the mood to tolerate such idiocy any more. Fools should never be suffered lightly. I’m reminded of when Bill Nye debated Kenneth Ham about Creationism vs. Evolution. I admire Nye but he shouldn’t have bothered. To debate them is to give them credibility. These people have every right to believe whatever they want, but I have every right not to listen to it or give it any credence or respect. The media needs to stop giving these ideas a platform.
 
And that leads to the real danger of these movements: humanity faces its greatest challenge thus far in climate change. It is no longer something to worry about in some distant dystopian future, it is affecting our lives now. More than ever we need science and the strength of our knowledge to help find a solution to this issue. The problem is more societal than technical, true, but science is how we learned about it in the first place, and science will play a significant role in how we deal with and hopefully survive it.
 
Ignorance such as that displayed by the Flat Earth movement is a serious handicap to our society. It is intellectual poison. In the years to come this movement will only hinder the rest of society as it deals with rising temperatures and worsening weather. They will only spread fear, a fear born out of ignorance. The snowball will grow larger, adding more extreme fringe movements that could make Flat Earthers look rational. Movements that will undercut public trust in science and reason to a degree that our society will rot from within. Like the National Geographic interviewer told the Flat Earther in the clip, their ideas could move us back to the Dark Ages. This is not hyperbole.
 
The sad part is that these people claim to be in search of the truth…but they are lying to themselves. Especially since they have been shown the truth, over and over. They make me think of infants who are afraid to leave the crib because the outside world is too big, complicated, noisy and scary for them.
 
It’s time we melt that damn snowball before it grows larger. The best way to do that is to remain steadfast in our democratic institutions, to support science education and research. To advocate reason over hysteria.
 
To stop being afraid of what we do not understand and engage with it instead.

“And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.”
     - Homer, The Odyssey
 
Science fiction at its core is the exploration of how technology affects humanity. How we deal with it, how it changes us for good or ill. Technology is a tool we use to protect, feed, entertain, and educate ourselves. We’ve also used it to take such things from others.
 
Two decades into the 21st century, technology has caught up to and in some cases surpassed the technologies that appeared in science fiction throughout the 20th century. This is especially true in the fields of communication, miniaturization, and medicine. Some key fictional technologies associated with SF—faster than light travel, cryogenic stasis, terraforming, and sentient artificial intelligence—haven’t been invented yet, and may never be. Now that our species is facing its greatest challenge in climate change, such far-fetched ideas may seem old-fashioned at first glance. Out of touch even, considering that none of them can be depended upon to save us from ourselves. In short, they have become a form of future mythology.
 
But it is not the purpose of myths to save, but rather to inspire.
 
“If science fiction is the mythology of modern technology, then its myth is tragic.”
     - Ursula K. Le Guin
 
This is nothing new; traveling to the stars has long been SF’s most dearly cherished myth, just like heroic cowboys dispensing justice on the Western frontier was a cherished American myth. But while the latter has been easily invalidated via historical records and a reevaluation of American colonialism, the former has yet to be cast aside. Though interstellar space travel could happen if our civilization doesn’t destroy itself and continues to progress, it’s not a given. Yet the idea is still taken for granted, especially in SF circles. Even my own fiction features this element, in part because I find such stories fascinating and truly believe it is humanity’s likeliest direction, but also because it’s something I want to happen.
 
This is no different than a child reading a dime novel in the late 19th century and wanting to believe that his or her gunfighting idols really were heroes in the Old West.
 
No, I’m not calling space travel childish—neither its fictional status, nor its real world endeavors. But what are we really saying about ourselves by writing and reading such stories? They rarely are grounded in scientific fact (guilty as charged, here) and even more rarely take into account what is currently happening on Earth today. If climate change forecasts come true, even at a conservative rate, space travel won’t be able to save the entire human race. Neither will terraforming. The hubris of wanting to terraform another world, while we have nearly wrecked our own, is galling. There is plenty of SF out there now that is paying attention to what’s going on, but much of it is still built on what came before. Transhumanist ideas have become a new part of that future mythology, where uploaded/recreated minds dwell forever in digital cloud networks.
 
So is this future mythology mere wishful thinking? A fantasy to comfort us while the world literally burns down around us? Critics have long called SF stories just another form of escapism. Perhaps the escapism has been found in the proposed solutions detailed in those stories, not the stories themselves. Or is it little more than a collective dream?
 
Yes…and no.
 
I state these things because science fiction is more than entertainment or a passion to me. It is a hopeful medium where humanity can learn from its mistakes and create something better. The technologies that drive those stories—FTL travel, terraforming, super-intelligent robots, what have you—are mere placeholders that offer solutions to these problems. SF explores the ‘what if’ of how such changes could affect our species, our civilization. It is a parable that is meant to stimulate thought and maybe even action, a tool that allows us to both teach and to learn.
 
So what these stories say about us is that we know we can do better. That’s not myth.
 
Recently, some have termed such SF as ‘hopepunk’ but it doesn’t need a label. This genre has too many labels and subgenres already. Besides, SF doesn’t always need to be positive in order to illuminate something about ourselves and our future. Dystopian stories are a perfect example. They too fall under the category of future mythology, though, because so many people assume our society will collapse. Pre-millennial SF novels and films often focused on doom and gloom scenarios, particularly leading up to the year 2000. That reflected the uncertainty many had regarding the 21st century, especially in light of the horrors of the 20th century. The drivers behind that uncertainty—their consequences—are now at our doorstep and cannot be ignored.
 
I don’t see this as an excuse to give up hope. To give up on humanity.
 
I certainly don’t see it as an excuse to assume that SF can no longer inspire us.
 
Mythology remains with us because their narratives teach us something about the human condition. The names and players might change to reflect the current zeitgeist but the stories are essentially the same. Comic book heroes are certainly modern myths, but SF isn’t concerned necessarily with today, but tomorrow. We are at a crossroads where some of these myths—such as reaching the stars—could become reality. That is what separates this ‘future mythology’ from ancient or even modern myths.
 
So while SF serves the dual purpose of providing entertainment as well as allegorical thought experiment, it is unique in that its stories have inspired people to make those myths a reality. From the communicator on Star Trek rousing an inventor to create the mobile phone, to rocket engineers reading issues of Astounding that encouraged them to literally shoot for the Moon, SF has served, and will continue to serve, as a catalyst for what we can achieve.
 
I only hope that we don’t become myths ourselves in the process.
 
“Today, we're still loaded down - and, to some extent, embarrassed - by ancient myths, but we respect them as part of the same impulse that has led to the modern, scientific kind of myth. But we now have the opportunity to discover, for the first time, the way the universe is in fact constructed as opposed to how we would wish it to be constructed.”
     - Carl Sagan