HungryHobo comments on How to provide a simple example to the requirement of falsifiability in the scientific method to a novice audience? - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (57)
Something being falsifiable and something being universally possible to check are 2 different things.
In theory you could falsify that statement after checking only a single swan if it happens to be a black swan.
Conservation of energy is falsifiable. If you found some way of creating energy without taking it from elsewhere then you would falsify it. However it isn't practical to check every cubic meter of space in the universe to check if it applies everywhere.
there's also the old Invisible Dragon example from Sagan
What I don't get is: They never take swords, they never check for princesses. Don't they know that curiosity kills 95.234% of cats?
And false. And I don't think conservation of mass-energy is thought to be globally true, it's a local property.
I find the last example mostly compelling for it's both interactive and impossible to get wrong. The OP could claim that he has been followed by an invisible dragon inside the classroom, and challenge the students to disprove its existence.
I like that though it would probably need to be somewhat interactive. Either that or you'd need a friend to do some of the call and response bits.
Probably most suitable if the audience includes lots of children.
You: "Hi everyone.
Today I'm going to be talking about some of the important concepts in science like falsifiability .... etc.
To help me I've brought John here and my Dragon."
John:"What dragon? I don't see any dragon."
You: "This dragon" [gesture at empty space] "I should probably have mentioned, he's invisible"
John: "... Ok, so he's invisible, lets see what his scales feel like" [wave hand through empty air]
And so on