[Authors note: This is a response to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I'm not sure it really has anything to do with the book, but this is what came to mind while I was reading. This is also the reason you can't ask me hypothetical questions like this. This is based of a conversation I had with my dad when I was younger.]
"If a tree falls in a forest, but there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound?"
I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand the question. If no one's there, then how could it happen?
I'm sorry, what?
I mean, we know about it right? We know that the tree fell. It be impossible for you to be telling me that it fell if you yourself didn't know that it had happened, and I'm guessing you weren't the one to find that tree all toppled over in the woods. You don't like like the hiking type.
Miss, it's a hypothetical question.
But still, how do we know it fell if there was no one there? We can't. So that mean someone had to have been there to find that tree, and that someone had to have heard some kind of noise.
I don't quite understand what you're getting at...
I mean, even if they didn't hear the tree itself fall, they'd hear something. When they found the tree, maybe they said, "Hey, look at this tree. I wonder what happened to it." Maybe they didn't say anything, maybe they'd just crunch leaves under their feet, or they'd kick the tree. That's noise.
But did the tree itself make a noise when it fell?
I'm sure it did. The guy might not have heard it, but I'm sure it did.
Miss, I'm not sure you understand the question.
Isn't that what I'd already said? *laughs*
What the question means is that the science behind sound-
Yes, I know all about the science behind sound. Sound waves and receivers and perception and all that. What I don't get is why there's no one around. Because, I can say from experience, that that's impossible. As long as there are people on earth, there will ALWAYS be someone around to hear. Always.
*sighs* Well, then let's just assume that there are no human beings around on earth. The-
What happened?
What?
What happened to all the people? Why are they all gone?
I'm sure I don't know. But if all the humans on earth were gone, would the tree make a noise then?
What tree?
The tree in the question.
Why is there still a tree?
What do you mean?
I mean, what could have possibly happened that would wiped out all the humans, but leave all the trees?
I don't know.
And if everyone's dead, why are we wasting out time worrying about falling trees?!
Okay, let's not assume everyone died. Let's assume that every just isn't. No one exists. No one every has or ever will.
Then how do we know about the tree?
We just do, alright?! We're omnicient, we know everything.
Wouldn't that mean we'd hear it?
Okay, then we don't exist. We don't exist. We know a tree fell. We never heard it because we never existed.
Okay. But why?
Why what?
Why do we know a tree fell? It wouldn't affect us in any way whatsoever, so why do we care?
We just do.
...a'ight.
So does the tree make a sound?
Sure.
Why?
I'm sure I deer has ears. And a wolf. And a bear.
FINE. Fine. There is nothing. There's nothing but the forest, which is void of any and all fauna.
But how'd the tree get there, then?
That's not important! There's just...there's no animals around. Just trees.
Trees are living. Can they hear?
No trees can't hear!
Are you sure?
Yes!
How?
*silence* okay...okay. There is just ONE tree. Standing alone. In...a desert. A single tree in a desert. There's no animals around. There are no other plants around. The tree dies. It falls. Does it make a sound.
No.
Okay. Good. Why?
Because it never happened.
*silence* How...wha...it's a metaphorical question! Just pretend it happened!
I am. I never said I wasn't. Sure, the tree fell. Sure, it made little waves that may or may not be interpreted as sound. But it also made little waves that may or may not be interpreted as the form of a tree and little waves in time that may or may not be interpreted as a falling motion. But no one was around to register any of those little waves, were they? No was around to confirm the tree ever really fell. And no one was there to confirm the tree had been upright in the first place, or that it had every really been there. And no one ever will be around to confirm if it's still there in the future. Or that the moment had ever really happened, or that the world ever really existed, or that ANYTHING ever really existed. So no. If a tree falls and no one or nothing is there to witness it, it doesn't make a sound, because it never really happened.
But.......but....it DID happen....
How do you KNOW?
*stares in silence*
*gets up and leaves*
