Falling Tree paradox

Isla Salas y Gomez en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Salas_y_G%C3%B3mez cannot support people. If it never had been seen, could it be real? The question is not as nonsensical as it must at first seem. It is just a version of the falling tree paradox: if there is no one in the forest to hear, does the fall of the tree make a sound? Common sense says that the answer is immediately obvious. The tree cannot fall without sending forth a wave of compressed air.

But a “sound’ that has meaning for our species requires a human to hear that change in the air. A physicist and a biologist together may predict and simulate the fine detail the first crack of the trunk, the ominous susurration of the downward arching canopy falling, the snaps and crashes of the plummeting branches, and the final thump! Of the trunk hitting the ground. But neither the scientist nor anyone else can hear the actual fall. A human or recording device on the scene is necessary. Otherwise the event has no meaning. Nietzsche captured the larger point when he had Zarathustra addressed the Sun: “You great star! What would your happiness be if you had not those for whom you shine! ~ Page 179

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Jean

Beautiful light on the trees.

4 years ago.

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