Thread: If a tree falls in the forest..you're gonna hate this one.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Is it? Sorry Greg, I did not read the entire thread.

If we are talking a one-off, I am with you all the way Holli - it is either true or false. But if 99 falling trees make a noise, and one does not, all that tells me is that 99% of trees make noise when they fall, on average. The non-noisy tree does not invalidate the 99 noisy ones. But that is the whole point of information - the more you get, the better informed you are. Who would base an entire idea upon a single observation, and state it as truth? It's madness I tells ya! Madness!!!!!

James.

I think the fact two people made the same point is a good thing.

I agree with you, you can either work on the principle that trees falling make noise because all the evidence suggests this, or you can try and produce evidence to the contrary.

I think you can also accept that it is the truth that the noise of every tree falling does not enter into your reality, how ever, based on your experience, you can hypothesize they make a noise too.

Your last point james, about basing an idea on one observation is kinda the crux of this debate. As you will never be able to observe a tree falling down and not be there at the same time, you're effectively basing an idea on no observations. This is where the idea of a running hypothesis is important, you can base an idea on your truth, and work with it until you gain evidence to the contrary. There is no wrong answer, in order to gain that evidence, you would have to be there and not be there at the same time.