And how about the definition of hearing? Cut 'n Paste from Wikipedia: "It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear." But isn't that irrelevant? You had already established that nobody heard it. I may be misunderstanding your original argument, but to me its like asking "If there is a blue light source that nobody is observing, is it still blue? Or is it electromagnetic radiation between 440 and 490 nanometers?". It's both.
So as well they can simulate us not noticing anything wrong. Or they can rewind the simulation, change the thing that made us wonder if we're being simulated, and run it again. Good point
No, no, no. Read my question again: who is "you"? Sorry about that. Although, if you question whether a falling tree makes a sound, then how can you accept that a tree fell? If your proof is that it must have fallen because it is lying there, I submit that it had to disturb the air as it fell, which we define as sound. Also, if you want to go back to the simulation theory: If whomever is in charge of the simulation doesn't want to simulate sound waves being generated as a tree falls, why would they simulate it falling? Might as well just put it there.
I really wouldn't be so sure. If there's nobody to actually *hear* the sound, is it still a sound, or just a bunch of waves in the air? Sound is, by definition, a bunch of waves in the air.
If there's nobody who can make an observation of some event, is there any way of proving that that event has occurred? Can you tell if the "big bang" had any sound? Yes. A very high-decibel low-frequency sound.
What if what you actually think you observe turns out to be an illusion? What if your whole reality is an illusion that is so good (or you're so used to it) that you couldn't tell what it really is?
What if what we perceive as the reality is actually a simulation, and the guys "outside" are saving resources by not simulating sounds nobody can hear, just like 3D engines do not draw things that the camera can't see? I could be wrong, but I think chaos theory applies here. They have to simulate it if they don't want us to notice something is wrong. Or at least they will.
And one last question... Let's assume that some "you" will actually hear that sound. *Who* is that one who is actually hearing it? Everything else in the forest.
If there was a highway where %30-50 of the vehicles were widely known to be transporting something illegal, would you be surprised if the local authorities took an increased interest in that particular road and began to watch things a bit more closely? Increased interest, sure. But forcing many of those cars to take other routes seems counterintuitive.
Slashdot Mirror
Why would they need a physical keypad? Is it hard to use the touchscreen?
I always thought Metallica was a genre.
People are pretty trusting of the repos most of the time.
Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
He should have Kapitalized it.
Speaking of Oregon Trail... Anybody know of any good open source clones?
I disagree. Although telling them to have fun with it is expecting a bit much.
BeOS
Fri Apr 25 10:32:58 PDT 2008
Stringing a series of wifi routers all the way to /.'s servers would be a bit cost-prohibitive for me.
You left off the part where you need to get back to your email because paypal is saying you need to verify your data.
Sorry to reply to my own post.
How's 'Big Iron Curtain'?
It happens
Let's see... we have the Great Wall of China and the Great Firewall of China. What should we insert between "Iron" and "Curtain" to describe this?
This is /.
Here, hot means alive and breathing.
Honestly, it depends on how liberally you define "found".
Biodomes ain't that bad.
You are correct.
A powerful CLI