But seriously, there are simpler tests to do, or to do first. Try telling your parents not out loud, but in a written note. That would rule out audio bugging. Try telling an empty room, when no one else is around. That could rule out your parents. Try telling someone you know won’t understand you. (Like a younger sibling.) Try miming it to your parents without using words. Try falsely telling your parents that a tooth fell out, when none did. Try telling your parents about your tooth that fell out, but not putting it under your pillow that night. Try giving your fallen-out tooth to a younger sibling and tricking him into pretending that that tooth was his to your parents. (Although that would probably mean giving up the income from that tooth.)
All in all, there are a lot of possible open tests that could be done, to narrow down the search space dramatically.
But the point is that if we allow the Tooth Fairy to be sufficiently ill-defined, we can construct a version of it that allows for any negative experimental result. Benquo had a preconceived model of the “the Tooth Fairy” which was given some initial weight, and when it was contradicted by an experimental result then Occam’s Razor strongly insists that we fall back on the null hypothesis*.
*(Unless there was some pre-existing good reason to suspect the “bugged house” hypothesis, which I doubt there was)
Does it? Suppose for example that that the Tooth Fairy has every house with little children bugged and so hears verbal statements about loose teeth.
That would require monitoring what happens to loose teeth in deaf families
But the Tooth Fairy probably knows how to read lips, given its fixation with teeth.
That leads me to think of some ethically questionable testing scenarios.
Yes...
But seriously, there are simpler tests to do, or to do first. Try telling your parents not out loud, but in a written note. That would rule out audio bugging. Try telling an empty room, when no one else is around. That could rule out your parents. Try telling someone you know won’t understand you. (Like a younger sibling.) Try miming it to your parents without using words. Try falsely telling your parents that a tooth fell out, when none did. Try telling your parents about your tooth that fell out, but not putting it under your pillow that night. Try giving your fallen-out tooth to a younger sibling and tricking him into pretending that that tooth was his to your parents. (Although that would probably mean giving up the income from that tooth.)
All in all, there are a lot of possible open tests that could be done, to narrow down the search space dramatically.
You have a limited number of teeth to experiment with.
That’s where your little brother comes in.
But the point is that if we allow the Tooth Fairy to be sufficiently ill-defined, we can construct a version of it that allows for any negative experimental result. Benquo had a preconceived model of the “the Tooth Fairy” which was given some initial weight, and when it was contradicted by an experimental result then Occam’s Razor strongly insists that we fall back on the null hypothesis*.
*(Unless there was some pre-existing good reason to suspect the “bugged house” hypothesis, which I doubt there was)