If pressed, we might reason that there is such a high unlikelihood of these pebbles having this particular configuration without human intervention that we take this unlikelihood to be good statistical evidence for a theory we all have that the station master was responsible. I frequently hear this argument form among engineers. Note, however, that any arrangement of the pebbles would then be evidence that the station master was responsible. So, the pain in the rear thinker might now want to pounce and throw out the baby with the reasoning bath water.
There is another option. Let's think about science differently. We have tacit understandings, Michael Polanyi insists in Personal Knowledge that might rescue the situations. He is too hard to read, however, and will probably slowly sink into obscurity and then disappear. Communication is important. I wish he could have blogged. Maybe I will resurrect him before I fade..
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