Is it true that advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events?

Question

Is it true that advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events?

Answer 1

Well, there's a lot of c**p on TV (although there is even more c**p on the internet).

However, TV is a recent form of technology that can be very informative about past events. This is especially true about stations like PBS, CNN, and many others. What I mean by this is that you can often find highly informative broadcasts about World War II, the rise of communism, the Civil War, among many other past events.

You just have to screen out commercially made shows that are sensationalistic but have little educational value. The fact that you are using Yahoo! Answers means you are a connoisseur in terms of using advanced technology to gather conclusive data that is scientifically indisputable.

Answer 2

What makes something conclusive or not isn't whether it involves advanced technology. What makes it conclusive is whether there remains any other logical possibility, given the evidence. Advanced technology can provide new evidence for one possibility or counter evidence for another possibility, but it can't draw conclusions. It is then up to you to draw a conclusion (or not), by being both rational and honest about the evidence.

Answer 3

You've obviously got an answer in mind for this and aren't interested in any others, but I'll give you the answer you don't want anyway:

No.

We can use technology to get a better idea of past events, but nothing conclusive.

For instance; a Caucasian woman's skull's been found in New Zealand that's been dated (technology) as older than Captain Cook's visit.

Was the skull taken there (as a skull) at a later date?

Was the woman on an earlier ship reputed to have been wreaked and the crew eaten before Cook?

We'll never know for sure, all we can do is make intelligent guesses based on the information the technology we've got gives us.