I'm getting a bit jack of this term "metadiscussion" becuse it only ever gets applied to what other people are choosing to discuss. People talk about what people want to talk about. It's about taste, perception, preference and prejudice. Even WITH rigidly adhered-to rules and conventions, this still applies. The challenge is to take WHATEVER is spoken about and MAKE that relevant somehow (to whatever you want to make it relevant to). That's harder, more interesting and dare I say it - more relevant a process than simply corralling all thinking under one topic or heading. As soon as you start to set up rules, conventions and expectations the population divides into those who feel that it is to their advantage to play by the "rules" and those who believe that this is a constraint. This list is remarkably troll-free. For that very reason I see no need to restrict what is spoken of. The ensemble theories of everything probably won't come from the brains of those who are exclusively obsessed by these things anyway since by now their perception is circular and their belief supports their belief. You need random thinkers, people who will break the local equilibrium and who will introduce the creative concept of "idea movement" from time to time.
K On 31/01/2013, at 7:53 AM, Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: > Might I remind everybody that the purpose of the everything-list is to > discuss ensemble theories of everything. If you want to know what that > is, please consult Wei Dei's description > http://www.weidai.com/everything.html > > Granted, this does touch on a lot of topics, ranging over fundamental > science, philosophy and even aspects of religion, but is not relevant > to the current gun control debates, or a move to assert moral values > in our households (whose morals?), just two of the topics discussed > this morning on the list. > > The list is deliberately left free-ranging and unmoderated. That has > been its strength, and the list has been remarkably troll-free. But > can I please ask everybody to keep the discussion more or less on > topic, so that the list remains relevant. > > Cheers > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
