3159: Continents

Continents

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Title text: The inflection point was probably in late 1966 or 1967, so when Neil Armstrong flew to space on Gemini 8, plate tectonics was not widely accepted, but when he landed on the Moon three years later it was the mainstream consensus.

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Explanation

This is one of 52 incomplete explanations: This page was created by a TECTONIC PLATE-SIZED CONVEYOR BELT. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Transcript

This is one of 27 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Two spacecraft are in space]

Spacecraft: Houston, the view is superb. We can see the continents spread out below us, right where they've been since the earth formed.

[Caption beneath panel:]

I still can't believe we developed spaceflight before we developed spaceflight before we figured out that the continents moved.

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Discussion

FIRST (ignore the timestamps) --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 13:59, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

More first. 82.13.184.33 15:26, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Firstest (don't ignore the timestamps) 164.90.218.225 (via pigeon mail) 10:35, 23 June 1508 (UTC)

Firstester! Christopher Columbus (talk) 23:45, 19 April 1492 (UTC)

Firestarter! 82.13.184.33 09:35, 18 March 1996 (UTC)

Twisted firestarter! 2.98.65.8 19:35, 27 October 2025 (UTC)

hi - 97.64.61.191 13:40, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

I added a transcription. Artem (talk) 14:00, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Related: Continental Drift: Alfred Wegener Song by The Amoeba People Solomon (talk) 15:55, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Related: comment drift. 64.201.132.210 18:31, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Is this referencing any particular actual statements by Armstrong or other astronauts? 130.44.139.195 23:12, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Probably not. Redacted II (talk) 23:29, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Nothing I've seen (genuinely) attributed to Armstrong seems to match this, from past passing over it or a quick search now.

He was a self-avowed deist, perhaps simplifiably as being in a "fire and forget" Creator who let things be as they turned out to be, so possibly before he could have been convinced about plate techtonics he might have indeed considered the apparently unchanging fundement of Earth to be just as unchanging as it he had assumed. Upon hearing good arguments for continental drift having happened (and perhaps getting an eyeful of at least the smoke from the smoking gun, directly), I don't think he'd have stuck dogmatically to that view. He did later thank the politicians for letting him see what the Creator had made, but that was post-Apollo 11 and so probably into the era of accepting there were moving-continents (and at that time being stood firmly on the ground).

Generally, even the other astronauts seemed to avoid anything particularly religiously conservative, even if they were religious, though notably Apollo 8 (after this) broadcast an extended reading of Genesis and attracted some First Amendment objections. Buzz Aldrin had a toned-down 'holy communion' whilst at Tranquility Base, probably to balance against that backlash.

I think it's a good enough joke without a real-world 'original comment' being riffed upon (or even correctly quoted) as the inspiration behind it. The humour is in the Timeghosty way in which the chronology of certain events is in a rather unexpected juxtaposition. But if someone can find some NASA transcripts to say otherwise, I'm sure it'd be worth a link or two adding in above... 2.98.65.8 23:53, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

Gagarin's flight was in 1961. I was still at school at the time and had recently become a space enthusiast. I came down to breakfast one morning and my mother told me the news. Incidentally, I took an O-level exam in geology in 1969 and continental drift was not on the syllabus.--2A00:23CC:D248:8901:B565:548B:1709:B532 08:36, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

I was 12 days old. I had better things to be concerned with at the time, but I did eventually become a space enthusiast as well. Barmar (talk) 16:07, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

I was -49 years old during Gagarin’s flight. Logalex8369 (talk) 17:08, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

Erm, actually, Russia got to space before the US, so the proper terminology would be: Kоролев, вид потрясающий. Мы видим континенты, где они были с момента образования Земли. 70.95.65.159 19:19, 26 October 2025 (UTC)

Good point. Apart from a certain degree of forced-secularism/state-atheism from the soviet system. Though uttering Korolev's name over an insecure (or potentially so) radio circuit would have probably have breached the secrecy behind his identity.

(Of course, it is speculated that this was more a 'decoy' secret so that the West would waste their resources trying to work out who the lead director of the soviet space programme was, rather than all on actually 'important' details. Whereas others think that it might have been genuinely a foreward-looking protection against the opposition working out where the more secret/less-public parts of the whole rocket-regime might end up going. Yet others just think that they didn't want a famous 'figurehead' who might have been acclaimed ahead of the political/governing leaderships themselves. Any which way, though, probably still not to be casually talked to, directly. More likely to address "Байконур", or similar.) 2.98.65.8 20:50, 26 October 2025 (UTC)

How is who got to space first in any way relevant? The point is that this flight is taking place before plate tectonics were understood, and there were many flights for which that was true.2602:FF4D:128:D56:F921:27CF:8247:EA3F 18:12, 28 October 2025 (UTC)

In 1969 America was still segregated and Randall is worried about the lack of progress in Geology.

My Father was taught about continental drift at Imperial in the late 1950s. I studied Geology in the 1980s, and my professor Dan McKenzie did a lot of the hard maths.

No black man was selected until the space shuttle programme - as described in "Once upon a time in Space". It ended well fo Col Bluford but less well for Ronald McNair. 178.17.254.16 (talk) 23:46, 30 October 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Humanity figured out it takes light 8 minutes to get from the sun to the earth 250 years before it figured out that galaxies outside ours exist. 57.140.32.59 19:11, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

Showed this one to my science teacher Explainyourself (talk) 00:50, 18 November 2025 (UTC)
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