Anonymous A started this discussion 10 years ago#51,257
OK, we all know that human memory is as unreliable as fuck, and that people tend to report what they thought they saw rather than what actually happened. How do you stand on the matter of eyewitness testimony? Hypothetical example: 18 people claim they saw a large black cat, possibly a panther, walking down the main street of your town. If you were sure the witnesses weren't lying, joking or hallucinating, would you believe them? Or would you you need to see videos (or photos) of the animal to believe the events described took place?
Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 46 minutes later[^][v]#664,470
> 18 people claim they saw a large black cat, possibly a panther, walking down the main street of your town.
If a large number of the claims were independent of one another, then I'd say I would probably believe that they saw something. I don't think I'd be convinced of what it was they saw, but I could believe there was something to see.
beckyderp !4aMoRa.T2Q joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 47 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#664,473
Leave the lawyering to the professionals, kid.
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 10 years ago, 23 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#664,475
@664,470 (Anonymous F)
Hypothetically: later on in the day, you see a news report stating that a black panther had escaped from a circus not far from your town. With this additional information, would you be more inclined to believe what the witnesses claimed, or would you still require more evidence?
Anonymous B replied with this 10 years ago, 1 hour later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#664,478
@previous (A)
I would probably consider this one hell of a coincidence if a bunch of people said they saw a panther and a panther had actually escaped. I would tend to believe the people. (provided these were independent reports)
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 10 years ago, 1 hour later, 4 hours after the original post[^][v]#664,480
@previous (B)
Yeah, the accounts become more credible after learning that there's an actual panther in the vicinity. Where would you draw the line, though? For instance, what if it was something even more incongruous, like a Hindenberg-sized airship passing over the town?
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 8 hours later, 12 hours after the original post[^][v]#664,531
squeegee joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 13 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^][v]#664,542
i witnessed a wreck right in front of me, people got badly hurt. i helped till paramedics and cops arrived, then gave a statement to the police. my statement was basically, "it happened so fast all i know is that i saw someone was out of position and going to get hit, then bam. but i don't know who was out of position or why. i think it was the truck, but it happened so fast i can't say if the car had right of way. i think it did, but it's not clear."
and for real, everything that happened afterwards ended up clouding what i saw of the wreck. pretty sure the truck ran a red light and the car had a protected green arrrow. i was behind the car, saw it coming, stopped, and didn't pay attention to the signal to see if the car was making a legal turn. pretty sure the truck was at fault, but like i told the cop, it was all a fog.
Anonymous B replied with this 10 years ago, 2 hours later, 15 hours after the original post[^][v]#664,620
> Yeah, the accounts become more credible after learning that there's an actual panther in the vicinity.
No, I'm saying accounts become more credible when a bunch of different people who don't know each other show up saying the same thing.
> Where would you draw the line, though? For instance, what if it was something even more incongruous, like a Hindenberg-sized airship passing over the town?
It's always going to be trade-off between what I can believe and what people are claiming. Obviously, I'll tend to doubt stories about ghostly robot dinosaurs, when I might consider stories about bigfoot, and I might even take seriously stories about panthers.
FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 15 minutes later, 16 hours after the original post[^][v]#664,624