(slaps self on forehead) It just occurred to me that the precognition theory is experimentally distinguishable from the alter-reality theory for Comed-Tea.
If Comed-Tea operates on precognition, then the frequency of potential spit-take inducing events (that is, events absurd enough to cause you to do a spit-take were you drinking something) should be the same for communities that have the stuff and communities that don’t… the only difference should be that Comed-Tea containing communities drink the stuff just before they happen.
OTOH if the frequencies aren’t the same, then the precognition theory runs into trouble. In that case something does appear to be increasing the likelihood of absurd events.
Of course, a third theory is that drinking Comed-Tea simply makes things seem more spit-take-worthy than they otherwise would be, thereby increasing the perceived frequency of such events… much like the frequency of giggle-inducing events increases after eating a hash brownie.
(slaps self on forehead) It just occurred to me that the precognition theory is experimentally distinguishable from the alter-reality theory for Comed-Tea.
If Comed-Tea operates on precognition, then the frequency of potential spit-take inducing events (that is, events absurd enough to cause you to do a spit-take were you drinking something) should be the same for communities that have the stuff and communities that don’t… the only difference should be that Comed-Tea containing communities drink the stuff just before they happen.
OTOH if the frequencies aren’t the same, then the precognition theory runs into trouble. In that case something does appear to be increasing the likelihood of absurd events.
Of course, a third theory is that drinking Comed-Tea simply makes things seem more spit-take-worthy than they otherwise would be, thereby increasing the perceived frequency of such events… much like the frequency of giggle-inducing events increases after eating a hash brownie.