Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan for September 01, 2008

20 points to anyone who can figure out the fallacy of Poncho’s argument.

I’m just glad we don’t have a basement.

@BTY: Easy. If true, it could be used to prove the existence of anything at all, even things that are physically impossible, without other supporting evidence.

Poncho doesn’t give any evidence that boogeymen can exist anywhere, regardless of whether or not we assume an infinite number of basements.

It’s like saying “sentient rubber balloons that like to listen to Marilyn Manson must exist because space is infinite.”

We have a winner!!!

Enjoy your twenty points. I have no idea what I would do with them, but I’m sure you’ll think of something.

EDIT: I should probably point out that the actual fallacious step is “any number multiplied by infinity equals infinity”. 0*infinity is indeterminate; therefore, if there is a 0% chance of a boogeyman being in a given basement, the actual probability of a boogeyman existing at all is uncertain. (END EDIT)

Anyway, if you’re into fanfic:

I’m guessing the upcoming week will feature some scary unidentified form that they take to be the boogeyman. It’ll turn out to be someone perfectly harmless. Boomer, perhaps? He hasn’t been shown in the last couple strips. Poncho will forget all about Fish, because he’s a dog. We can’t have a repeat of what happened last time, when Poncho rescued the fish, now can we?

Are they ever gonna remember that poor fish?

@BTY: Ok didn’t spot that one… Thanks for the points anyway.

The Drake equation (also sometimes called the “Green Bank equation”, the “Green Bank Formula,” or often erroneously labeled the “Sagan equation”) is a famous result in the speculative fields of exobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Equation

Wait a minute… if space is indeed infinite, how is it expanding?

Just because 0(infinity) is uncertain doesn’t disprove Poncho’s argument, it just proves that it is speculative, or at the least subjective.

So we can’t really call his argument fallacious until we see his definition for “boogeyman.”

Maybe to Poncho, someone like Ed Gein is the “boogeyman.” Or Helen Hunt.