h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Toxxin, I don't know what you want me to say, I don't know what you want me to do, for someone who knows a lot of words, you are one of the worst communicators (both tx and rx) I have ever come across.

To be perfectly honest, you have got me to the point where not only do I not know what you want, I don't care either.

I am unsubscribing from this thread.

Ben

OK. If you've unsubscribed, Ben, you won't reply. I don't want you to do anything other than get it right. When I see it going wrong, I tell you. Simple as that.

This is *so* frustrating! I have just finished wading through a b'log of 220+ posts (some of which were incredibly loooooooooong) to find that the owner of the thread has just unsubscribed...

Well if that's the way you see it.... The way *I* see it, your 'contributions' are pedantic and unhelpful. I am unsubscribing too (for the second time ).

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

hang on, everyone!

Ben, are you abandoning this entry? If not, are you really unsubscribing?

Toxxin, maybe take a step back from this debate, and look at the forum in a different light. We're not just having an arbitrary online debate - Ben is trying to write an article. I think one of the difficulties here is that you are mostly setting forth objections, without very much constructive comment on what *could* be done.

FWIW, i think it'd be a shame for all this time and work to produce jack-spit...

btw, Ben, did you notice my qu about the way the entry works back there somewhere?

I was saying that i feel that it is oddly weighted with so much stuff on the visionary figures and only a handful of sentences at the end that make what i felt is your main point.

you still there?

Obviously it's up to me to leave. I shall unsubscribe and leave you to it. Someone please tell Ben.

you takin' your ball with you, then?

Spiff. Where two people see fit to unsubscribe, one of them the initiator of the thread, it seems only polite for me to move on if only to avoid the unearned disgruntlement of third parties such as Six 7's.

Sorry if you are the only one fair enough to see some positive side to my contribution. A devil's advocate is often useful. I have certainly benefitted from such criticism.

FYI

Toxxin and I have discussed our common unsubscriptions from this thread elsewhere, and have reached an understanding.

I must credit him with a substantial amount of help between the first draft and what you are reading here which is the second draft, and I am confident that many of his other comments, and the comments which he provoked from other people in this thread, will make the third and hopefully final draft even more robust.

I will be re-reading the entire thread again between Christmas and the New Year, and will re-write the entry in the light of the discussions in this thread, and of course any other discussions I have with any other people here or elsewhere. If I change my mind on the validity of the arugment, I will change or remove the entry accordingly.

Since any commentary and discussion will taken into account and possibly included, please continue to discuss this entry if any of you would like to.

In the meantime I am unsubscribing from this thread again. The previous unsubscription was NOT an attempt to outmaneouver Toxxin. It was an honest reaction to a thread that I was finding frustrating and exasperating to participate in.

May I wish all of you very happy atavistic winter solstice festivals of choice - I am off to celebrate a summer solstice elsewhere.

B

http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/boyer.html

FYI.

H.

What is it about belief that would make it an evolutionary selection factor? I think it is that belief nurtures understanding. As we discover that (say) clouds in the sky tonight are likely to be there tomorrow, bringing rain, we incorporate this knowledge into the 'scriptures' of Aristokat the Rain Goddess.

The cult of the Rain Goddess serves as a framework within which knowledge can be integrated and stored for future use. Devotion to the Goddess will ensure that one learns "red sky at night...", and that the knowledge is retained and passed on to future generations.

Those who can predict the weather, or otherwise understand the world in which they live, will have an advantage over those who don't, and so belief could give rise to an evolutionary advantage that natural selection will favour.

Just a hypothesis, I accept, but is proof (of this or any other hypothesis on this subject) likely to be found? I suspect not. All we can do is guess which hypothesis of those submitted is the most likely.

Any comments?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Well, not Armageddon exactly, but I want to get this project done and dusted, and I am proposing the 31st Jan as the deadline for all outstanding entries, including this one.

So I am officially re-subscribing to this thread, and will at some point over the next couple of weeks lurch my way through the backlog. I may even change the entry!

Also: Anyone who is nurturing an entry for the project, please let me know. I want to have them as finished as we can get them by the end of January.

In the mean time, Happy New Year!

Ben

Did this get finished?

Yes.

This wants moving back to entry - it is part of a completed project and I think it was left here by accident. Seconders?

Do authors' votes count? I second the move.