hey you know the thing about the tree falling in the forest etc ????

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the one that says is there sound even when no one is around to hear it? what is the consensus on this?
i think yes there is sound, not for any real logically thought out reason like " birds etc hear it" but just because.

― donna (donna), Saturday, 28 September 2002 05:53 (twenty-three years ago)

just wondering.
any comments anyone? or am i simply a lone tree...................

― donna (donna), Saturday, 28 September 2002 05:54 (twenty-three years ago)

even if you asked them i doubt the birds would break the sacred vow of the forest.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:22 (twenty-three years ago)

The tree falling is actually a metaphor for unwitnessed action. Ie, does the universe exist when you're asleep?

It's a rhetorical question.

― Andrew (enneff), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:32 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah but lets answer it

― donna (donna), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:34 (twenty-three years ago)

If a question is asked and is never answered, is it a thread?

― donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Fine. Straight Dope to the rescue.

― donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:43 (twenty-three years ago)

the tree doesn't make a sound if no one hears it.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 28 September 2002 07:23 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, there is sound. who are we to think that such phenomena exist purely for the benefit of humankind.
The tree falls, it hits ground, it makes a noise. To suggest that a fallen tree might soundlessly be 'placed' into a 'fallen' position so as to give the impression that it came crashing down whilst we were out of ear-shot is to admit that you think the Universe is 'created' by some unseen power. Like we are some kind of entertaining little ant-farm/experiment? I think not....

But then again.... (Imagining a tree falling through my roof from somewhere way up in the sky, followed by a booming voice..."Do-oh!")

― Perry Bernard (panterus), Saturday, 28 September 2002 07:57 (twenty-three years ago)

If you blog and no-one reads it, have you really blogged?

― toraneko (toraneko), Saturday, 28 September 2002 08:09 (twenty-three years ago)

i broke the secret vow of the forest once. it was bloody murder getting back in with the deciduous crew i can tell you!

― gareth (gareth), Saturday, 28 September 2002 09:16 (twenty-three years ago)

when you take a pill which removes the pain, do you still have a headache?

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 28 September 2002 09:19 (twenty-three years ago)

if i can't see the GIANT SLEEPY RED BUMBLEBEE that just crawled on my ankle and I flipped away w. my other flipflop, can it still sting me?

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 28 September 2002 09:20 (twenty-three years ago)

oh there it is: it looks like a blot from hell

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 28 September 2002 09:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I think that pill must have done more than remove the pain Mark.

― Graham (graham), Saturday, 28 September 2002 14:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If a tree falls in the forest and the sound of it crashing is recorded by a tape recorder which no living thing will ever find, does it still make a sound?

― ejad, Saturday, 28 September 2002 14:25 (twenty-three years ago)

or what if someone did find it?

― ejad, Saturday, 28 September 2002 14:56 (twenty-three years ago)

haha later it crawled onto the ROLLING STONES songbook which is for some reason lying on the study floor (oh yeah. i wz proving the "satisfaction" is not a patriarchal song), and couldn't get off because it is too shiny... its legs had no purchase (i assume its wings don't work: it is a bumblebee = it cannot fly as proved by science) and it was was staying in the same place

now it has vanished again, which means i am nervous once more

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 28 September 2002 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

bees are so stupid; this is the reason to fear them

if no one has the demo tapes did they really play the music??

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 28 September 2002 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you shit in the woods, are you really a bear?

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 29 September 2002 11:42 (twenty-three years ago)

no.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 29 September 2002 11:51 (twenty-three years ago)

You're the pope.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Sunday, 29 September 2002 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

While we're about it can we do the sound of one hand clapping?
I don't get these monk like dudes who spends years contemplating this stuff. They should do what I did and record it.
It's sort of like a whumpf sound.
DUH - zen buddhists - I could teach them a thing or two, I tell Ya.

― Simeon (Simeon), Sunday, 29 September 2002 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I like slapping people in the face (lightly so they don't get mad) and saying "that's the sound of one hand clapping." it's really dumb but it makes me laugh.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 29 September 2002 16:42 (twenty-three years ago)

i fart out of the left side, and I tell people that is the sound of one ass flapping.

Oh, the tree and the sound thing? It doesn't matter, you can never see the forrest because of all the trees, so they can't fall in one that we can see, let alone hear. And what if it's a deaf person when the tree falls - does s/he make a soung when the tree squashes them?

― Queen G (Queeng), Sunday, 29 September 2002 17:25 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

"Sound" is a word that only homosapians use to describe the noise created when WE change a vibration into a sound. So when a tree falls it always makes a vibration but not always a sound.

― The King, Thursday, 30 January 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Does calling it a sound make it a sound in the first place though?

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

but even if there were no humans around there would have been other living creatures in the falling tree able to register that vibration as sound surely...

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

That wording was rub - you might not get my distinction.

You seem to say that it is our calling this event a sound that makes it a sound. I would argue against this theory.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

also, i disagree with the view that without living beings around to register the sound there is no sound...the analogy in Minoirty Report in which Cruise convinces the other guy that 'pre-crime' is logically sound applies here...physics dictate a sound would be made, not living creatures

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Doesn't the tree make a sound as long as there is a creature in the forest with ears to change the vibration to noise? If all living things left the forest and the tree fell after, then it would be pretty difficult to answer.

― fractal (fractal), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

What tree?

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

IT DEPENDS ON YOUR DEFINITION OF "SOUND" - THAT IS THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, for shouting. There are trees fallign all over the place and I can't hear myself think.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Does it also depend on your definition of a boombastic jazz style?

I truly am sorry.

― fractal (fractal), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Big lie.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 30 January 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

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