EDIT: commenters below have caused me to think better of my impatient tone below. Please imagine strikethrough through
In the absence of any replies[*] from you more than 24 hours after you posted the original article, which I think is a little rude and I hope is accounted for by unexpected real-world constraints, I shall resort to further attempts to anticipate and forestall possible replies.
“I don’t know” isn’t an acceptable answer either. The question isn’t “what will happen in such a Universe”, it’s “at what point to you balk at the possibility”. You balk before the end of “it could be just like our Universe” and after the beginning (which is, say, the game of Life) so you have to be able to identify a balk point somewhere on the scale.
EDIT: would appreciate downvote explanation—thanks!
EDIT: [*] to any comments in this thread, not just to my comments—thanks Alicorn for prompting me to clarify
This is an asynchronous medium, and Mitchell_Porter is not obliged to address your inquiry anyway. It’s possible he hasn’t even seen your comment. Perhaps you could send him a PM, which would be harder for him to miss, and ask him if he’d have a look at your question without accusing him of being rude for not having done so already.
Edit: This comment also serves as your downvote explanation.
Not my enquiry specifically—he’s made no comments at all since posting the article. I think that if you make a top level post you do have an obligation to take part in the subsequent discussion.
If I’d written a post that’d gotten downvoted into the negative that decisively, I’d take a day or two off to avoid posting extremely defensive comments. I have no idea if that’s what Mitchell is doing, but while he probably should make some attempt to field comments on his post, chiding him for being untimely is not nice.
From the votes, it looks like people agree with you rather than me on this, which I take seriously. If anyone else wants to downvote me on this one, I’d slightly prefer they downvote the grandparent comment rather than my one above that, so I know it’s the chiding rather than the argument that’s getting downvoted.
Needling your interlocutor for a prompt reply makes it sound as you’re more interested in “winning the debate” than in getting a considered reply from them. If it takes someone a couple days to let the dust settle, consider possible counter-arguments or lines of retreat, and frame a careful reply, don’t begrudge them that.
I’d like to think about this more, but what you say sounds convincing just now. I’ve been ill this week, which is why I’ve been online so much, which may be affecting my judgement.
If it makes you feel any better, in the last discussion, several posters referenced my explanation, which you would think would bump me up on his reply priority list. It didn’t.
While I’m hoping for my comments to receive a reply, I’m looking forward to all his replies. We enjoy such a high standard of debate here that it makes me impatient for more.
EDIT: commenters below have caused me to think better of my impatient tone below. Please imagine strikethrough through
“I don’t know” isn’t an acceptable answer either. The question isn’t “what will happen in such a Universe”, it’s “at what point to you balk at the possibility”. You balk before the end of “it could be just like our Universe” and after the beginning (which is, say, the game of Life) so you have to be able to identify a balk point somewhere on the scale.
EDIT: would appreciate downvote explanation—thanks! EDIT: [*] to any comments in this thread, not just to my comments—thanks Alicorn for prompting me to clarify
This is an asynchronous medium, and Mitchell_Porter is not obliged to address your inquiry anyway. It’s possible he hasn’t even seen your comment. Perhaps you could send him a PM, which would be harder for him to miss, and ask him if he’d have a look at your question without accusing him of being rude for not having done so already.
Edit: This comment also serves as your downvote explanation.
Thanks, it’s good of you to explain.
Not my enquiry specifically—he’s made no comments at all since posting the article. I think that if you make a top level post you do have an obligation to take part in the subsequent discussion.
If I’d written a post that’d gotten downvoted into the negative that decisively, I’d take a day or two off to avoid posting extremely defensive comments. I have no idea if that’s what Mitchell is doing, but while he probably should make some attempt to field comments on his post, chiding him for being untimely is not nice.
From the votes, it looks like people agree with you rather than me on this, which I take seriously. If anyone else wants to downvote me on this one, I’d slightly prefer they downvote the grandparent comment rather than my one above that, so I know it’s the chiding rather than the argument that’s getting downvoted.
Needling your interlocutor for a prompt reply makes it sound as you’re more interested in “winning the debate” than in getting a considered reply from them. If it takes someone a couple days to let the dust settle, consider possible counter-arguments or lines of retreat, and frame a careful reply, don’t begrudge them that.
I’d like to think about this more, but what you say sounds convincing just now. I’ve been ill this week, which is why I’ve been online so much, which may be affecting my judgement.
If it makes you feel any better, in the last discussion, several posters referenced my explanation, which you would think would bump me up on his reply priority list. It didn’t.
While I’m hoping for my comments to receive a reply, I’m looking forward to all his replies. We enjoy such a high standard of debate here that it makes me impatient for more.