Does That Really Happen?

from JoeUser Forums
Ok, this is just on the top of my mind. But I've been wondering. ........

Lets say if a tree falls in the forest. Ok, now that you got that down.......

If it falls and nobody is around to hear it fall, does it really make any noise. Or what does it do? I've always wondered that.

Do I sound stupid asking this or what?

So really if something happens is there a noise that comes from it? I don't even know. Just pondering.

~carebear~
5,581 views 40 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
...

Yeah, it makes noise.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Ok. lol.

~carebear~
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
It makes a vibration....a noise(sound) is interpreted by the brain....so in fact it doesn't make a sound. Actually if no one is around, then it doesn't exist....the universe or reality(Your personal reality) is only "real" to you if you're there to observe it.

~Zoo
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Why aren't you on Msn Shaun?

~carebear~
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sound still occurs even if it falls on deaf ears (or in this case, none). The interpretation obviously doesn't, but that doesn't really count, does it? For example, my rug upstairs is still white even if I cannot see it from where I am standing.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
For example, my rug upstairs is still white even if I cannot see it from where I am standing.


But, you've seen it before...you know for a fact that it is white....it does exist...and it is upstairs. From my perspective it doesn't exist, unless I listen to you and believe that infact there is a white rug in your house sitting upstairs...see where I'm coming from?

~Zoo
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
No, I'm talking about sound, not what it looks like. lol.

But how can there be a noise if noise is a vibration and you hear vibrations. So really it makes no noise, b/c other trees can't hear so therefore nobody's hearing it. Right? Do I make sense here? lol.

~carebear~
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Good point Shaun.

~carebear~
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well, it depends on how you define sound. I am looking at it as the vibrations and sound waves sent out by the tree. You are looking at it as actually hearing something. In a way, we are both right, just looking at it two different ways.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well a sound is a wave. Waves of light are all around you, but just because you don't pick it up that doesn't mean it isn't there. Humans have limits to what our senses can do for us. A human not hearing the tree fall sertainly doesn't mean it didn't MAKE a sound. Our problem is that we didn't pick it up with our relaitvely pathetic hearing.

Capt. over and out!
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
From my perspective it doesn't exist, unless I listen to you and believe that infact there is a white rug in your house sitting upstairs...see where I'm coming from?


So, is your take that there is (1.) a general reality (the rug exists) with a personal interpretation of that reality (I do not know the rug exists) or (2.) a collective reality, a merging of individual realities to one "agreed" upon reality?

IG
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
My rug upstairs really is getting a lot of publicity out of this.

Captain Cornbread, you said pretty much what I was trying to. Just because we personally cannot observe something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I doubt anyone can hear the Antarctic wind right now, but I'm sure it is still making noise.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
YOU FOOLS! You are trying to solve an unaswered riddle, and if you do, life as we know it will be forver altered to the whims of the Mooninites! The real question is, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, am I insane?
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
Whoa...Njforever and I commented at the exact same time, right down to the second.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yes....which is more than we can say for the content
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
Heck if i know, isn't there some big astronomy concept like this, me and alex had this big long discussion on it i believe. Its fasinating.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Everything in life is relitive to the way you percive it. Your reality may not be the same as my reality, since reality is basically you belief system. My god(s) may not be the same as your god(s) or maybe they are the same, maybe God, and Allaha (sp) are the same maybe the Roman gods, greek gods, norris gods, etc. really are the same as the current god (or whatever deity), not to exlude mother nature from that group, and just the reality or perseved reality of the person(s) has changed overtime to simplify/complexify the consept and belief of god(s). Or maybe, they have locked all the sane people up, and left the insane to run the world.

So, to answer the core question, if a tree falls in the middle of the forest, does it make a sound? Who knows? In my percived reality, it was talking to the other trees and the other trees just haven't figured out how to tell me about it yet.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
In my percived reality, it was talking to the other trees and the other trees just haven't figured out how to tell me about it yet


Now that is the most likely explanation of them all.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
"It is nice to be able to talk to trees, but the true beauty of life is to be able to listen to them."

I don't know where that comes from, but it strikes me at this moment. I think it's significant. Well, significant enough to post on this reply.

Let me ask you a question that may answer yours. "Does God exist?"

For you, the answer would be yes. It's a matter of believing. Whatever you believe is up to you, but that belief makes you the way you are.

Here's the comedy for the night: If a tree falls in the forest and hits a mime, does anyone care?

I hope you find your answer.

Beebes
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yes, but if nobody is there to hear it fall, then how do we know if it makes a sound? I mean we really wouldn't know if you weren't there to hear it.

Does that make anymore sense?

Fazz~ Is your rug liking this? lol. I think it's becoming famous. hehe.

~carebear~
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
(1.) a general reality (the rug exists) with a personal interpretation of that reality (I do not know the rug exists)


That sounds basically what I'm going for.

If a tree falls in the forest and hits a mime, does anyone care?


No, no one cares....and it probably doesn't make too much of a sound....

~Zoo
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
But what if you taught a monkey sign language and the monkey told you that the tree did indeed make a sound when it fell, would that count or not, since no human heard it, but a monkey did?
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
....and if a man says something in a forest and there's no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
I am sure that if you put a tape recorder in the forest and recorded the tree falling you would hear a sound when you played it back. Thus a sound was made. Regardless of whether or not the sound is captured (by ears or a recording device), the sound is still there. The sound is not negated simply because it was not captured.
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top
It depends on how you define sound. Is "sound" the moving of waves of a certain length through a medium? Or is "sound" the interpretation of said waves?

If you think the waves alone constitute "sound," then yes a sound was made.
If you think "sound" is a subjective interpretation of such waves, then no sound was made.



There's an episode of the Simpsons (I think involving Bart playing miniature golf) where Lisa tells Bart that you're not supposed to answer questions like these. (She was asking him what the sound of "one hand clapping" was.) You're just supposed to ponder them and thereby expand your mind. Like Buddhist koans, they're for consciousness expansion. And also for philosophy professors and doctoral candidates to pretend they have a purpose.