Absence of Proof

I loved this this xkcd cartoon:

In case you didn’t get the logic of that, read it again and take a few seconds to let it sink in.

Now take into account that the percentage of smartphone users is very high in Europe and Japan too. In India and China, the number of smartphone users is very high (they are the 3rd and 2nd largest users in absolute numbers, after the US).

Combine all those stats, and we can similarly “prove” that there are no Loch Ness monsters, yetis, flying carpets or godzillas either!

Who’d have thought the ubiquitous smartphone, thanks to its camera, could become a tool to debunk a whole lot of myths?

Of course, if one is totally logical about it, then one has to concede that absence of proof is not proof of absence (which is why courts rule people as “Not Guilty”, but never as “Innocent”).

Then again, didn’t the great Sherlock Holmes crack the case of Silver Blaze based on the dog that did not bark? If absence of something is good enough for Holmes, it should be good enough for the rest of us too!

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