Peter BlokFeb 20
xkcdbot

title text: 'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.

desktop link: https://xkcd.com/3210
mobile link: https://m.xkcd.com/3210
explainxkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3210

Feb 20 at 7:59pmWeb
Show threadROTOPE~1 ⭐️Feb 20
@xkcdbot if you're a detective in a fictional work, once you've eliminated all of the obvious red herrings then whatever's left, however obliquely alluded to in chapter three, must be the truth.
Show threadCegorachFeb 20

@xkcdbot THANK YOU, RANDALL! (not the bot)

I'll be quoting this XKCD like… ALL THE FUCKING TIME!

Show threadLafncow Feb 20
@xkcdbot When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, probably ain't it either.
Show threadBlobsterFeb 21

@xkcdbot Quite good. Doctors (in medicine) should be able to draw your cartoon with the eyes shut before they are allowed to practice.

I also encountered two real “scientists” in physics during my studies who did a similar, terrible mistake (one teaching physics, the other working in a lab on statistical physics and thermal transfer). The model they developed led to a differential equation. We didn't have the tools to solve this equation. Then they said:

Here is a solution to the equation; since reality shows only one behavior, this is necessarily the solution.

And I thought: “Oh yeah, and what if your model is simply missing elements that explain how reality selects its particular solution?”