But the point is that if we allow the Tooth Fairy to be sufficiently ill-defined, we can construct a version of it that allows for any negative experimental result. Benquo had a preconceived model of the “the Tooth Fairy” which was given some initial weight, and when it was contradicted by an experimental result then Occam’s Razor strongly insists that we fall back on the null hypothesis*.
*(Unless there was some pre-existing good reason to suspect the “bugged house” hypothesis, which I doubt there was)
But the point is that if we allow the Tooth Fairy to be sufficiently ill-defined, we can construct a version of it that allows for any negative experimental result. Benquo had a preconceived model of the “the Tooth Fairy” which was given some initial weight, and when it was contradicted by an experimental result then Occam’s Razor strongly insists that we fall back on the null hypothesis*.
*(Unless there was some pre-existing good reason to suspect the “bugged house” hypothesis, which I doubt there was)