There’s a handy cliche: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In concr... | Hacker News

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		2devnull on March 19, 2024 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: EPA bans asbestos, a deadly carcinogen still in us... There’s a handy cliche: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In concrete terms a zero is different from a missing value.

roenxi on March 20, 2024 [–]

The cliche is wrong. The absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Not conclusive evidence.

There are an infinite number of things that don't exist and that we don't have any evidence of. It is nice if we can positively disprove them, but that is not necessary to justify disbelief.

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