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There's a pernicious effect going on, though. You can see on the Twitter threads about this that people are asking physics professors what they think -- and the
by knzhou 7y ago
There's a pernicious effect going on, though. You can see on the Twitter threads about this that people are asking physics professors what they think -- and they're all weaselling out, saying stuff like "No comment." Why? Because from decades of experience they know that nothing is going to stop the hype train: at best they'll be ignored and at worst they'll be tarred in some articles as hidebound reactionaries.
But if the real experts can't be bothered to say anything, then the only criticism will be from laypeople, and they can only argue based on Wolfram's personality and record -- in other words, Wolfram Derangement Syndrome. If you discourage this, we are left with no criticism at all!
(In reality the situation isn't totally lost, but only because there are "half-experts", i.e. grad students like me, who know just enough to criticize substantively, and just little enough to waste time doing it.)
- catalogia 7y ago> There's a pernicious effect going on, though. You can see on the Twitter threads about this that people are asking physics professors what they think -- and they're all weaselling out, saying stuff like "No comment. I am quite confident their criticism will eventually come. "No comment" doesn't mean "I will never comment on this." Criticisms take time to formulate, you'll need to be a bit more patient.
- dang 7y agoYou're welcome to criticize substantively. I took a quick look at your comments and didn't see any WDS. Maybe just a little.
- tchaffee 7y agoCould you kindly consider a less loaded term than WDS? TDS is often used to gaslight and / or too easily dismiss people who have valid concerns about the world's most powerful leader. And surely in the both of these cases it is an exaggeration. The people who lash out at Wolfram as a person are extremely biased and not objective. That does not make them deranged or mentally ill. Perhaps the exaggeration is an indication of your own frustration around the issue? I would suggest that more neutral language in discouraging these types of comments might better achieve the end goal.
- dang 7y ago* DS as a trope long predates T. I'm using it in a lighthearted way that isn't malicious and certainly not literal. It's obviously not a claim that anyone is mentally ill. That's why the exaggeration is deliberately so silly. I get your point, though, since as I'm always telling commenters, intent doesn't communicate itself on the internet and the burden is on the commenter to disambiguate (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20burden%20disambiguate&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...). In a case like this, though, I'm not sure that changing it is the best thing to do, because there's also a cost to the precedent that sets.