How Do You Prove Something Doesn't Exist?

[ScoopMeister]

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Basically, you can't prove something isn't there, just because there is no evidence, which means you can't disprove something, EVER.

You can disprove that you're an idiot by performing well in your education and later life.
You can disprove that an egg came from a chicken by giving evidence that a Turkey laid it.

Sorry. I know I'm being annoying and pedantic by arguing against a perfectly valid comment. I'm just bored.

 

[aei_haruko]

i've often thought of this and the only possible way i can think of is to meet the person who made said thing up, like in Fable when the Oracle tells you Avo and Skorm don't exist because they were invented by a trader, anyone think of any other way?

you proove it doesn't exist in the form which they say it does.
Hate? it won't exist as a thing, because hate is a horrible idea, it is the most animal instinct, and it is common, but not as a thing. It is not powerful, because anybody can ahte, it is a sign of weakness. For hatred is simple, and it is weak. love is complex and strong

 

[aei_haruko]

I'm just going to say Schrodinger's cat, and allow you to do what you will with it.

hahaha, XD I agree.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

Logic would be a good place to start. We can dismiss any logically impossible being/thing from the get-go. No one would take me seriously if I said my bed was made of sleep, and for a good reason. AT LEAST WITHIN OUR UNIVERSE, logically impossible beings cannot exist.

 

[interspark]

i've often thought of this and the only possible way i can think of is to meet the person who made said thing up, like in Fable when the Oracle tells you Avo and Skorm don't exist because they were invented by a trader, anyone think of any other way?

Add a qualifier: 'This doesn't exist here.'

Works well enough.

no it doesn't, that's absurd! we're not asking how you can disprove something's location! anyone can do that!

 

[Naeo]

The only way to definitively prove something does not exist is to observe, with 100% accuacy, the entire universe at every scale at the same time. If it's not there, it logically doesn't exist, ignoring the possibility of it popping in and out of existence. I'm purposefully ignoring things like "what if it exists outside of our universe" because that would, for all intents and purposes, have no effect on us.

But in this case, proving something doesn't exist is needless. The burden of proof rests with the person who made the assertion "X does exist". If they can't prove it, their statement is considered false. And saying "well you can't disprove it" is in no way proof. By that particular reasoning, I could "prove" literally anything. E.G., "all humans have a finite chance of randomly transmuting into a strawberry popsicle. But they cannot ever change into a raspberry popsicle", "somewhere in the universe, at any given point in time, there is an army of mutant robot zombie Hitler ninja communist hacker Pokemon devouring the very fabric of space time". Neither of those can be disproved, because a "finite chance" could be one in unthinkable powers of ten, and I dare you to scour every point of space in the universe simultaneously.

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Technically if the Universe if infinite then everything that can exist must exist somewhere = P

You're thinking of the "infinite universes" theory. Just because something is infinitely large doesn't mean everything possible can and will happen in it. Also it's highly unlikely that the universe is actually infinite, just really, really huge.

 

[metacree]

Simply declare that something doesn't exist and destroy all of those who oppose your view.

 

[Wolfram23]

Nothing exists until proven otherwise. By default, you don't have to prove something doesn't exist, but that it does exist.

 

[ScorpionPrince]

Technically if the Universe if infinite then everything that can exist must exist somewhere = P

That does not follow at all.

For example there are an infinite number of odd numbers, but none of them end in 2, no matter how high you count.

I think the infinities are mixed up here. The universe is infinite, as in: there an infinite amount of space through which a finite amount of matter is moving through. Because this matter is finite, it is impossible to be in all possible configurations, and therefore not everything that can exist, must exist somewhere.

Q.E.D. (forgot what this means exactly but you put it at the end of your proof if you feel like being pretentious)

 

[Daverson]

Counterexample.

Ie, if I claim that: x=4, but it's known 2x-2=9, then you can prove x doesn't equal 4, as 2(4)-2=6.

Though, in most cases, it's normal for the advocator of a theory to provide proof, rather than expecting others to disprove it. People who do that are usually the sort who "don't believe in science"...

 

[Nabirius]

Generally you can't prove a negative, if you are debating with someone they are the ones proposing a positive hypothesis, so the burden of proof is on them.

 

[floobie]

If said "something" is tied to a fixed, physical location... you can go to that location. If it's not there, it doesn't exist. Otherwise, you can't.

 

[martin's a madman]

Innocent until proven guilty, the thing doesn't exist until you prove that it does.

 

[2fish]

Everyone who said you can't and used logic in their argument is WRONG

How to prove things do not exsist:

1. Bad Photoshop picture
If you have to do bad Photoshop to back up your argument it doesn?t exist.

2. Just know it
You don't have a reason, but you just know peanut butter is going to kill all humans.

3. Edit Wikipedia
If Wikipedia says it doesn't exist who are they to argue?

It is their duty to prove their flesh eating peanut butter exists your duty to test their info.

 

[Katana314]

You can't prove god doesn't exist, but you can't prove the flying spaghetti monster doesn't exist either. You also can't prove X doesn't exist...

A refrigerator ruling over a tribe of pygmies powered by mushrooms.
A factory making exactly one half of a cup of coffee.
A soup sandwich.
A planet in the exact shape of goatse.
A parallel universe that coughed up this universe in a sneeze
A starving tribe of kittens on a planet made of fire

I vote rather than collect donations for the church, we arrange a space shuttle mission to save that starving tribe of kittens.

 

[Mikeyfell]

look for porn of it.
Rule 34 has no exceptions!!

 

[icaritos]

You can't, quite simply. But in a situation where this kind of thing arises, the onus of proof is on whoever claims that the thing does exist.

That is almost correct. The burden of proof falls to whatever claim is being made, not who ever made the claim that it does exist as a default Because if something was always accepted as a given and then you come along and say it does not exist, it is you who are making the claim in that your claiming it does not exist. If you make the claim the burden of proof falls to you. If your making a claim you do not get the luxury to hide behind your inability to back your claim up.

Edit: Teapot be damned, and Bertrand was a hack.

That is a ridiculous assumption, the burden of proof always falls to the one making a substantiated claim regarding a existence or phenomenon. Regardless if something has always been accepted or not, it falls upon those who actively believe it to provide evidence of their claims.

 

[FalloutJack]

*Sigh*

I hate this. My dad always tries saying you can't prove a negative, but he's an idiot. Negative is a condition that is accepted as true in human understanding, ergo negative can be proven. Shaking your head "No no no" at essentially half of the universe is pointless. You have to accept the reality that there is up and down, right and left, matter and anti-matter, and those that exist and do not exist. Everything else has its opposites, so this would do. Let me give an example.

In times of old, people believed in the existence of many strange monsters and roving tales of haunting stuff. Creatures of mythology. Dragons, harpies, chimeras, minotaurs, centaurs, etc. and so on. Evidence of anything like those creatures living at that time? Zero. No bones, no nothing. We can trace human ancestry, dig up dinosaurs, and even reconstruct ancient DNA, yet the unicorn, the hydra, the cyclops, and so on fail to leave us so much as a hint of ever having been. You can't tell me there's a vast conspiracy started by the Roman Empire to clean all that up. Some things were really just the imagination of sailors.