Kungfuhobbit's Internet
Laws
1. As debate on any topic continues over time, somebody
will blame the bankers
2. As debate on any topic continues over time, somebody
will slander Richard Dawkins
3. The first two-thirds of any debate is spent ad-homming
and strawmanning before finally understanding each other’s points; the last
third is spent coming to the realisation that intuitions are inexplicable and
that people’s values are subjective, arbitrary and mutually irreconcilable
4. If you want to make a devastating philosophical
critique of their argument, there’s an SMBC for it; if you want to make a
trivial, pseudo-profound observation there’s a TED Talk for it.
5. If a phrase is attributed to Einstein, Gandhi or
Russell on the internet, they didn’t say it.
6. In a democracy, on every political issue there’s a
popular answer and it’s nearly always wrong.
(Mencken’s
Law)
7. If there's
a change.org petition calling for it, don't do it
(The Petition Heuristic)
8. There is zero chance of getting people to respond to the
content of your argument rather than its perceived emotional tone.
9. If you can’t talk about quantum physics while
referring to a PDE, shut up
(Colquhoun’s
Law)
10. As debate on left-right politics continues over time,
somebody will voice the sentiment "Everyone's equal! And if you can’t see
it then you’re a subhuman piece of shit and I’m so much better than you!”
(The
Law of left-wing, anti-Tory discourse)
11. Every nationality thinks they
alone invented humour, war, compromise and cuisine.
12. The only certainties of life are conflict, competition, disagreement and
gossip.
Three laws of discovery
1. Arnold’s law Discoveries
are rarely attributed to the correct person
(Of course Arnold’s law is self-referential)
2. Berry’s law Nothing
is ever discovered for the first time
(prompted
by the observation that the sequence of antecedents under law 1 seems endless)
3. Whitehead’s law Everything
of importance has been said before by someone
who did not discover it.
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