Roundworld Conspiracy: Magic Show & Hiding God

Part 9: Magic Show

Ah, we're back to the planes. I actually enjoyed this one, because I got to learn some interesting things about modern communications technology. Sargent admits that some of his own listeners, attempting to repeat his observations from part 7, discovered that there really are non-stop long-hauls over the southern hemisphere, so of course he had to come up with a way to disprove that those flights actually happen.

Magical camouflage, obviously.

You have to admire the tenacity at least, as Sargent (and friends) figured out that there are websites where you can view the tracking of commercial flights, and claim to have actually spent hours upon hours watching the icons move across their screens. Eventually, their patience paid off and they discovered that planes flying over the southern oceans disappear from the tracking sites several hours into their flight, only to reappear as they happen to approach their destination. How could it be that any corporation or government would allow their assets and people to just drop off the grid like that, so often and for so many hours at a time?

Well, for starters, the GPS doesn't track the planes at all. GPS satellites track their own positions and on-board clocks, constantly broadcasting that information to any receiver that happens to be tuned in. The receiver you carry with you, and the ones built into the planes, don't transmit anything, they simply receive those signals. By comparing the lag time from transmission to reception for at least two of those satellites, the receiver itself triangulates its own position.

So then, how do planes get tracked at all? Well, airports of course use RADAR systems, and there are probably a network of tracking stations all over the world, but their range and usefulness are somewhat limited. So if you take a look at the website that Sargent himself was using, PlaneFinder.net, their own explanation gives you pretty much everything you need to know, but basically they use ADS-B, a system that relies on the plane transmitting its own information to ground-based receiver stations. This system is more efficient and reliable than RADAR, but is still limited to a specific range around those stations. When crossing the broad expanse of an ocean, those stations are few, and very far between.

Of course, the technology does exist for more complete tracking services, but it is prohibitively expensive. It requires not only a satellite network like GPS, but also for every object being tracked to be equipped with a two-way, transceiver powerful enough to communicate with its orbital counterparts in real-time, and enough bandwidth that they're all working constantly. At an optimistic minimum of $0.15 per minute per plane, this would add up quickly. Not to mention the costs of establishing the unprecedented, massively complex network in the first place, since existing systems are already over-stressed, and their jobs are much smaller.

Part 10: Hiding God

Here, Sargent starts off by coaching his viewers on how to discuss this subject with others. In itself, it's not a bad idea, since any concept worth knowing is worth discussing - that's just education. Of course, he bases the discussion on the same misconceptions as the previous videos, and encourages activism based on incomplete and sometimes downright false information, so the educational benefits kind of fall apart there.

Then he gives his argument a religious twist. "They are hiding God!"

I wasn't even sure where to start with this.

We're talking about the reality of the natural world around us. As soon as you say "god", science goes out the window.

Wait, even if we were on a flat world with a domed ceiling, you're saying a supernatural creator is the only possible explanation?

These guys have no way to comprehend how their enclosure was built. Must be God.

Of course, how the world came to be is once again irrelevant to the discussion. The videos were supposed to show us clues that the world is flat, and whether it coalesced from clouds of dust leftover from the sun's formation, or was lovingly hand-crafted by an invisible ghost in the clouds, nothing we've covered so far proves Sargent's point.