alt Hacker News"undisputed evidence that the chemicals do not cause problems"
Impossible standard. You cannot prove a negative.
But, I think it's fair to assume that any chemical that is toxic to plant or insect life is probably something you want to be careful with.
Replies
JumpCrisscross • last Monday at 4:38 PM
> Impossible standard. You cannot prove a negative
It's also a deep incumbency advantage. Of course the guys selling the existing stuff are going to dispute the safety of a competitor.
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jjgreen • last Monday at 5:12 PM
You cannot prove a negative.
How about Fermat's last theorem?
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Nonsense, if we view proving as providing evidence for, then absolutely we can prove a negative. We have our priors, we accumulate evidence, we generate a posterior. At some point we are sufficiently convinced. Don't get hung up on the narrow mathematical definition of prove (c.f. the exception[al case] that proves [tests] the rule), and we're just dandy.