Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for October 02, 2022

Fern’s back.

And trees make the wind blow

I’ve been telling the grand kids that

If the premise is that a falling tree causes atmospheric vibrations but those are called “sound” only when they are noticed by a living being, does that being have to be human? What about a squirrel? An ant? A nematode?

Very anthropocentric.

Egocentric is correct. What else are the vibrations called if there’s nothing around to sense it? The ability to sense those vibrations is called hearing.

Why does it have to be heard? If a fire burns down a house and nobody sees it, did the house not burn?

If the moon disappears when you go to sleep, it stands to reason that the tides disappear also. Ergo, you can’t surf when you’re asleep.

Are we living in a computer simulation like The Matrix? How would we know?

Why is there something rather than nothing? How would we know?

Was the entire world created 5 minutes ago, including each of us with all our memories intact? How would we know?

In Edwin Abbott’s Flatland, 2-dimensional beings living on a flat surface understand length and width but have no concept of height. Are we 3-dimensional beings oblivious to a 4th spatial dimension? How would we know?

Did a supreme intelligence create the Universe 13.77 billion years ago, give it a little shove to get it started, then walk away to let it wind down on its own? HWWK?

What if, every time somebody made a decision, the universe split into two separate timelines, identical but for the decision going one way on one timeline and the other way in the other one? HWWK?

Gravitational measurements indicate that the Universe is about 5% what we think of as normal matter and energy, 30% dark matter, and 65% dark energy. Are we physically occupying the same space with dark-matter people, passing effortlessly thru them without noticing, because their equivalent of protons, electrons, and neutrons have no way of interacting electromagnetically with ours? HWWK?

Notice that these questions are qualitatively different from ones like “What was family life like for our ancestors 200,000 years ago?” (past), “Is my perception of red the same as yours?” (present), or “Will I ever be able to self-levitate?” (future). Those are cases where we can at least imagine a line of inquiry, such as the one about “Is there a Contra-Earth in our exact same orbit, only on the far side of the Sun, where we can never see it?”. The answer to that was “Let’s invent space flight and go look.” (We did, and there isn’t.)

But for all those “HWWK?” questions, we wouldn’t even have a clue where to start looking. This drives some people nuts.

I like it when no one is in the forest to see me chop a tree down.

Wiley lives vicariously through Danae.

I once stumbled across some twit on YouBoob who was giving a “lecture” explaining that the moon was just an illusion.

“In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.”— Wikipedia. So the answer to the tree question is yes … and no. “Yes” if you’re talking physics, “No” if you’re talking human physiology.

This, children, is where idiot flat earthers get their ideas from.

And the light stays on in the fridge when you shut the door.

Wait Danae, means Fern disappears when you sleep, too! And you just can’t trust disappearing people.

People who question reality always ask the wrong questions.

No Danae, that was only when Fern goes to sleep not you.

Then it only stands to reason that the Moon revolves around HER.

When reductio ad absurdams go bad….

I can find the answer to that question but I will have to wait and see when and if the cat comes out of that box first

seems in egocentrism, the question might be “If a tree falls in a forest and I’m not there, does it make a sound?”

If you WANT it to be true, Danae, then it IS.

Actually, there are some “physicists” who claim “Quantum Mechanics” demands that the Moon does disappear when you stop looking at it,

I want the purple hair!!!!!

Philosophy… a great way to waste time.

I think, today, I’ll order a tee shirt, with a stupid slogan printed on the front. See who takes the bait.

The falling tree puts waves of energy into the surroundings. It is up to us to sense and interpret them. If the tree falls on your foot you tend to come to conclusions more quickly.

If you add the words “scientific fact” to something these days, it’s pretty much the same as saying “this is a no shi77er” back in the day. Lots of conviction and lots of facts pointing to dubious conclusions.

The moon can only disappear if the entire world goes to sleep at the same time. Otherwise there is always someone awake to see it.

Kind of like the man who stayed up all night wondering where the sun went…

…until finally it dawned on him.

How almost all conspiracy theories start!

Darn, for a few seconds I thought Danae had learnt the right lesson for once. I guess that was silly of me.

I had a friend in high school who claimed the universe would end after his death and his proof was that we couldn’t disprove it to him.

Ok Danae, I will give you the Moon, if you admit the Sun, rises and sets on ME .

I’ve decided that solipsism does not exist…so, it doesn’t.

Those aren’t stars, they’re LEDs.

And just what theory will she come up with next???

¯\( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)/¯

Read a science fiction story when I was a kid. First trip to the Moon. At a certain distance from the Earth there was a crash and the astronauts looked out and saw the back of the giant stage set.

If a guy is standing alone in the woods where there is no woman around to hear him and he says something, is he still wrong?

“A-A-AND HERE WE GO…”

(senses an awkward and incongruent response in this cartoon)

Yeah, and days in the summer are longer and shorter in the winter cause the Earth’s rotation changes speed. It has to fit in 24 hrs.

Typical Danae wanting absolute power misunderstands.

ah, the seeds of another scheme by Danae, this could be interesting and fun

I think that it’s common for children to close their eyes and believe that if they remain shut long enough, their problems will go away when they reopen.

It’s all a matter of Perspective. And Danae has a very Unique perspective on the world.

The look on Joe’s face. XD

Monthly lunar cycle explained by Thurber in the wonderful story, “Many Moons.”

Amen Ra was depicted as the Sun God, and so traversed the earth every day. The ancient Egyptians thought that when the sun set it disappeared and Ra’s great nemesis Apep depicted in hieroglyphs as a snake) fought with Ra, but the outcome was always the same – the sun rose again. Ra had prevailed. Of course we all know that when the sun sets it doesn’t go away – likewise for the moon – if you don’t see it it doesn’t mean it’s not still there … don’t we?

What is in my head is often not what comes out of my mouth. What comes out of my mouth may be what goes in your ear, but is very likely not what gets to your brain.