I often wonder how people come around to disbelieving things they’ve seen with their own eyes. In your hypothetical, you have seen the flight for yourself, but the Brothers are prestidigitators. I can see the validity in thinking “I’ve just seen something hitherto extraordinary, so let’s make sure that any other explanations for what I’ve seen (like wire-tricks) are less likely than postulate: that plane can really fly!” But I don’t think it’s constructive to just pattern match “These guys make a living tricking people with unbelievable bologna, so going so far as even SEEING something perpetrated by these hoaxters would make me look stupid. Therefore, I didn’t see that plane fly”
I often wonder how people come around to disbelieving things they’ve seen with their own eyes. In your hypothetical, you have seen the flight for yourself, but the Brothers are prestidigitators. I can see the validity in thinking “I’ve just seen something hitherto extraordinary, so let’s make sure that any other explanations for what I’ve seen (like wire-tricks) are less likely than postulate: that plane can really fly!” But I don’t think it’s constructive to just pattern match “These guys make a living tricking people with unbelievable bologna, so going so far as even SEEING something perpetrated by these hoaxters would make me look stupid. Therefore, I didn’t see that plane fly”