THE FUSE

Imagine this scenario: You’re a farmer living in medieval Europe, and while tending your livestock, a neighbor races up to you, bursting out the town crier’s latest news: "Geographers and other learned men are declaring the earth is round, not flat!" This is a shocking contradiction of your common sense, a far cry from how you’ve thought about the world. Your instant reaction is to dismiss the news as wildly speculative, eggheads blathering quackery.