Tree falling in the forest

Comment #28

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:36:28 GMT

Life is in my fingers now. I'm typing what I'm feeling, with my feelers. Reality is now says the music man.....Sunshine music corp. dot com. Not really no such address. I'm bored....lo......

Comment #27

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:30:38 GMT

I'm aware of my existence. I can think about why my sense of prescence matters. I can overload too. I can outdo the situation with a 360 degree turn ending up where i left off. Reality, existence, morality, justice, remorse, contempt, desire, greed, jealousy, power, abuse, and a whole host of other realities in my world,,,,,

Comment #26

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:10:33 GMT

Reality checks hmmmmmmm What is real and what is not

Comment #25

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:59:09 GMT

I was just wondering. Does the forest disapper if no one thing sees it? Can something exist without being perceived? - e.g."Sound is only sound if a person hears it" The most immediate philosophical topic that the riddle introduces involves the existence of the tree (and its sound) outside of human perception. If no one is around to see, hear, touch or smell the tree, how could its existence occur? What is it to say that it exists when such an existence avoids all knowing? George... [ More ]

Comment #24

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:35:35 GMT

Surely all those people and animals and insects can feel the vibrations, but that's all. Maybe in that case the human population would communicate with vibrators. One short vibe would mean something and a long one would mean something else. just like morse code.

Comment #23

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:25:38 GMT

So the question would be....If someone threw the on switch at the station tower transmitter, and no tvs existed, did the station produce a show? NOPE.... If you say yes, then who saw the show? And how

Comment #22

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:17:33 GMT

Ok tenaj, let's put it this way. If a deaf person blew a special dog whistle in the forest and no living creature within hearing range was present, did it make a sound? No...if you say yes, then my question would then be, to whom did it make a sound? Until some creature picks up those vibrations in the air, then those vibrations just disipate after travelling through the air. It's only when a receiver picks up those signals and has a brain that can turn those waves into something meaningfull, it's nothing more than waves in the air.... [ More ]

Comment #21

JAP69 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:16:49 GMT

All components on this planet must work together for the planet to operate as we know it.

Comment #20

ayenowitall — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:07:48 GMT

I know that Einstein came up with his theory of relativity (which only a handful of people on the planet actually understand), but did he really say that everything is relative? I can't imagine that he would be unable to recognize that such a statement negates even itself.

Comment #19

Tenaj — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:06:50 GMT

Yes, it did make a sound. The dog heard it. The question is - did it make a sound. Yes it did. Not who heard it. Sound doesn't care who hears it. Even though you'll not around when the tree falls, it still makes a sound.

Comment #18

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:03:44 GMT

If you only have the maker and the medium, and no receiver, then the waves will just disipate in time. If you have the medium and the receiver, then you'll have to wait for the maker of the sound. If you only have the maker and no medium, like in space where there is no air for the waves to travel in, well...then it's just futile. Try clapping in space....you won't hear a thing...lol Another is fire. You need 3 ingredients for fire to exist. Or for humans to call what we know as... [ More ]

Comment #17

pacattack05 — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:46:39 GMT

Elephants make a similar noise when in distress, in the wild. In their case, the frequency is so low that only the elephants can pick it up, for many miles to boot. It's all about the frequency and the right receiver. I know it's semantics, but techinically it's true.

Comment #16

justxploring — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:45:47 GMT

Was the dog behind the tree that fell? :-)

Comment #15

Tenaj — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:17:25 GMT

If you blow a dog whistle (which you can't hear) and the dog come running - did it make a sound.

Comment #14

pacattack05 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:39:08 GMT

Sorry about your injury JAP69. Hopefully science and it's ever so rapid growth in technology will be able to come up with something to alleviate the ringing. I'm hopeful they will.

Comment #13

JAP69 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:28:33 GMT

I received my injury from and explosive noise. When that happen my hearing started to ring from the injury. It has been that way for over 40 years 24/7. If I were to become totally deaf I would still hear the ringing. <br

Comment #12

pacattack05 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:25:26 GMT

Can you successfully explain what the light from a flashlight looks like to a person who was born blind? Einstein's whole relativity theory revolves around perspective, and one's place within it. It's all relative to the observer, is what he said. We as humans take for granted, the complexity of our senses. They seem to be a given, yet their make up and what the brain has to do to interpret those signals are extremely difficult to fully understand. Perception can be a tricky th... [ More ]

Comment #11

JAP69 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:20:18 GMT

I am hearing impaired due to an injury. Not severe enough to not hear but can understand most people when they talk. When people speak to me it is all a matter of the tone of voice and the decible output wether I can understand them or not. The same goes as far as other sounds in the universe. Sound for any person or hearing creature is the vibrations of the sound wave created. Sound waves go to the ear drum and then tranmitted to our brain for translation. <br... [ More ]

Comment #10

justxploring — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:49:50 GMT

No, Pac. You can describe colors and light to someone and each person will visualize them differently. However, they still exist. But color isn't really anything but a byproduct of light & its spectrum, so without light, can there be color? I've often heard that 2 people do not see any color the same because how we see red or blue depends on how your eye absorbs the light. So grass to me is green and to you is green, but your green might be my blue. <br

Comment #9

pacattack05 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:05:41 GMT

Can you expect a person who was born blind to understand what light is if you explained it to them?

Comment #8

pacattack05 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:00:09 GMT

I still firmly believe the word "sound" is a manmade word. And the definition must be within the confines of living things. Sure the mountain felt vibrations of the tree falling, but it still is only vibrations. What humans call sound is the end product of those vibes. I never said that the occureneces never happened. Only that the receiver of those vibes and frequencies were not present to make sense of the data, which leads me to be believe that it's energy is in it's raw stat... [ More ]

Comment #7

Tenaj — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:17:40 GMT

P.S. I don't know how true this website is. First I've ever heard of this stuff.

Comment #6

Tenaj — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:56:51 GMT

http://www.getodd.com/stuf/treefall.html

Comment #5

justxploring — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:54:02 GMT

I agree with Rick. Before I read the other comments, the first thing that came to mind was a new galaxy that was discovered in the 90s. For billions of years it existed, but we didn't know it was there. There are many things we can't see, hear or smell. Also, sight & sound can be wrong. Ask several people after an accident what they saw and you will get different answers. That is because our perception of events can be influenced by our emotions. Did our Earth exist before the first human walked upon it? To me, hearing has nothing to do with the existence of sound. Beethoven heard sounds in his head after becoming deaf and was able to create music and express that sound to us. Did he not hear the music once his senses were impaired? Sound is energy, and energy comes in many forms. If we do not hear the thunder after we see the lightning, does that mean the lightning never flashed? According to science, lightning always produces thunder, but often the lightning is too far from us to hear the thunder it creates for the sound waves to reach us.... [ More ]

Comment #4

Rick G — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:31:34 GMT

Although Jill couldn't hear it, Jack could. The sound existed whether it was perceived by Jill or not. Unfortunately, Jack is trapped under the tree and Jill has to go for help. She heads back down the path and a mile away another tree falls in her path. No one is near enough to hear the sound. Did the second tree make the same sounds as the first tree? I think so.

Comment #3

Rick G — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:46:38 GMT

You can't take away the reality of the fallen tree. Just because we didn't detect it with our senses doesn't mean it didn't happen. I believe the sound (vibrations) would be exactly the same whether we were there or not to "hear" it. If a tree fell in a canyon, the walls of the canyon become receivers (echo) so a receiver does not necessarily have to be animate. A receiver can be described as any matter the vibrations come into contact with. If a star explodes in a distant galaxy,... [ More ]

Comment #2

Tinker — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:03:23 GMT

Can something exist without being perceived? - e.g."Sound is only sound if a person hears it" The most immediate philosophical topic that the riddle introduces involves the existence of the tree (and its sound) outside of human perception. If no one is around to see, hear, touch or smell the tree, how could its existence occur? What is it to say that it exists when such an existence avoids all knowing? George Berkeley in the 18th century developed subjective idealism, a metaphysical theory... [ More ]

Comment #1

pacattack05 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:03:03 GMT

That's why Bees can see ultraviolet, yet humans can't. We don't have that high range capability within the spectrum. That whole sound thingy can also be equated with light. You still need the same 3 ingredients as sound does. All sound is......is a product...like light.....whose only existence and acknowledgement is soley based on a reciptient present. Without the reciptient...those photons and audial wave patterns are just that....nothing more than invisible rippl... [ More ]

Original Blog Entry: Tree falling in the forest

pacattack05 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:49:19 GMT