FEPE’s Armor Is Thick… But It Has To Be

I know all those at the tip of the beak get the reference in the title… but for the uninitiated: Robert Simmon created a “blue marble” depiction of earth used as the default image on the first iPhone. In reference to the production of the famous image, Simmon said, “It’s Photoshopped, but…. It… it HAS to be.” Many a ball believer has claimed that this is taken “out of context.” But I ask you, what context are they referring to?

 Are they referring to the context of NASA being unable, in 2017, to provide a genuine photograph of earth from outer space? Are they referring to the fact that—even though NASA claims to have gone to the moon multiple times circa the 1960s and 70s—they are still unable to show us the earth in real time, as a spherical mass, rotating on its axis in outer space?

But the story behind the much-admired image that introduced the world to the iPhone—known as the “Blue Marble”— is worth telling in its own right. Simmon, a data-visualizer and designer at NASA’s Earth Observatory, created the image in 2002. He told Quartz it’s not a photograph, but a sophisticated visualization.

Images of the earth may seem commonplace, but there are actually very few pictures of the entire planet. The problem, Simmon said, is all the NASA earth-observing satellites are in low-earth or geostationary orbit, meaning none of them are far enough away to see a full hemisphere. The most familiar pictures of the entire Earth are from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo missions to the moon.

So when I say FEPE’s armor has to be thick, this is why: because it doesn’t seem to matter how obvious NASA’s deceptions are, the majority of people will accept AND defend them as absolute truth. These are people who sincerely believe NASA to be a saintly educational organization that seeks to share the secrets of the universe with them. Humanity can no longer afford to be this naïve.

GOOGLE Syndrome

The problem is much deeper than the seemingly unbreakable faith the masses have in NASA. With the internet at their fingertips, people navigate their lives believing that the entirety of human knowledge is a few keystrokes away. What they fail to realize: most of that highly accessible information is—pardon my crass language—HORSESHIT. There is tremendous danger in convincing ignorant people that they have a firm grasp on the nature of reality. 

We are living in what is called the “Information Age”. Let’s break that down by looking at some definitions:

in·for·ma·tion (noun)

1. facts provided or learned about something or someone. "a vital piece of information"

2. what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things.

COMPUTING: data as processed, stored, or transmitted by a computer.

  

(in information theory) a mathematical quantity expressing the probability of occurrence of a particular sequence of symbols, impulses, etc., as contrasted with that of alternative sequences.

Origin

Definition number one is the most common application for the word information; most people automatically associate the word information with “facts”. However, the subsequent definitions paint a very different picture. What I am driving at here is this: information and knowledge are not necessarily the same thing. I could produce 100 pages of drivel—absolute gibberish—and those 100 pages could technically be defined as “information”. That does not mean a single sentence on a single page contains a shred of actual knowledge.

By contrast, let’s look at the definitions for knowledge:

knowl·edge (noun)

1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information.

PHILOSOPHY: true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.

2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. "the program had been developed without his knowledge"

Knowledge represents FACTS earned via real world experience. Knowledge is based on universally repeatable observations; it is not based on opinion. The words “information” and “knowledge” are NOT interchangeable. Information CAN be knowledge but it is not a requirement to fulfill the word’s definition. In other words, knowledge is always information but information is not always knowledge.

So proclaiming we live in an “Information Age” most certainly does NOT mean we live in an age of knowledge; it only means that there are vast quantities of information available that may or may not qualify as actual knowledge. And these are the word games the establishment plays incessantly.

CONCLUSION

When it comes to spreading awareness about flat earth, we are dealing with a worldwide citizenry who believes they have access to a vast wealth of KNOWLEDGE. This emboldens them. This has convinced them that they have all the answers… that they are all a mere keystroke away. This makes the task of presenting the truth of our flat and motionless plane especially difficult.

We must be patient. We must be persistent and dedicated. We must be unflappable.

And yes, our armor must be thick. The masses believe they live in an age of knowledge when, in truth, it is an age of informational noise as vast as it is empty.

—Ty Gorton

P.S. - The armored emperor penguin with wrench (FEPE) was created by Post-Globe Society.