Fair criticism. Maybe not, but I find the "what if foo was missing" arguments emotionally manipulative and so worth making fun of. It's like going up to someone

Fair criticism. Maybe not, but I find the "what if foo was missing" arguments emotionally manipulative and so worth making fun of. It's like going up to someone in 1935 and saying, "What if there wasn't any metal? Your life would totally suck!" Well, duh. If your point is "the industrial age depends on metal" or "the information age depends on electronics" go ahead and say it, but don't pretend like it's a novel idea. (Though as pavel_lishin pointed out I totally missed the "suspend your scientific beliefs" part of the quote, I, uh, quoted. Oops. At least his deadpan response is funny.)