Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26907577-20191002153041/@comment-32182236-20191129232702

The wizard hypothesis also predicts that there should be a sizable gap between the seventh human and Frisk, a prediction that is probably correct, given that Toriel has to mention that it's been a long time since a human fell.

We're not sure if the curfew hypothesis predicts this. Though we can easily say it does, as the probability might have dropped to 0 until the Determination village forgot about the rule-Though that's an added assumption.

We shouldn't say both are true-Not unless we have evidence of both. We have evidence that the wizards created the Barrier, and happened to put it in a spot habitable by monsters, where it was possible for a monster-human SOUL to cross. The 7 SOUL breaking criteria doesn't need an explanation-That's the power of the wizards, so the same power could break it.

One could also try to explain the monster+human method of crossing it the same way a monster with a human SOUL can be explained as super powerful. I'm not sure how much of a stretch that would be.

Either way, we want to find the hypothesis that makes the fewest assumptions, that also fits all the evidence. (But a hypothesis with more predictive/explanatory power is favored more.) Hence, unification theories tend to be favored, as if you can derive a vast amount of evidence from just a few principles, you've probably gotten close to the actual laws of Undertale's world.

Combining two won't help unless both do well in separate domains, like with general relativity and quantum field theory (though in that case, they're incompatible, so scientists are trying to find a unifying theory to reconcile the two.)