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

The way the question is posed, there are three possible answers. Yes, it makes a noise, no it does not make a noise, and it neither makes nor does not make a noise. These seem to me to be conditional answers.

Given you take the question literally, the answer would be yes it makes a noise.

Given you take the question allegorically, the answer would be maybe yes, maybe no - depending on the underlying meaning you take from the question.

Given you are off with the fairies, your answer would be it neither makes nor does not make a noise.

We can discount the third answer as obviously coming from a crazy person. That leaves the first two choices. The answer "yes" appears in both the literal and allegorical cases. Further, the probability of a "yes" in the allegorical case is non-negative, although it may be small.

Therefore, integrating across both conditions, we clearly see that "yes" occurs more frequently than "no". In other words, the value of the answer that maximises the condition space imposed by the original question is "Yes".

Therefore, the answer to the question is most likely to be yes.

James.