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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
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cardcollector (1270 D)
07 Oct 14 UTC
Card games are fun too
Join my card games!
72 replies
Open
JamesYanik (548 D)
27 Oct 14 UTC
National Cat Day Games Are Up!
We have 3 games: Classic gameID=149410 - America gameID=149410 - World gameID=149410 - PPSC, 24 hour phases, anon, (5 D) bet
All games will start by next month but I hope to see some on by the 29th!
8 replies
Open
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
24 Oct 14 UTC
Religious Radicalism
Continuation of discussion from threadID=1192831.
187 replies
Open
cardcollector (1270 D)
25 Oct 14 UTC
Time for another one.
Card games are fun. Just ask a gambler.

I want a few more games as mine start to thin down. Probably 3-7 games, not sure if I want a series just yet. Depends on the interest from others.
12 replies
Open
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
28 Oct 14 UTC
(+1)
Obama: conservatives should blow him
http://jeff61b.hubpages.com/hub/14-Facts-About-The-Obama-Presidency-That-Most-People-Dont-Know

11 replies
Open
TheMinisterOfWar (509 D)
29 Oct 14 UTC
Replacement Germany needed
We're looking for a replacement Germany in game:
http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=148522

Germany missed a phase, but tons of opportunities. And the game is filled with experienced players. It's anon, but (oddly enough) people are revealing themselves on public chat. So take a look there if you want to know. I've removed the password, so it's free to join.
1 reply
Open
Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
24 Oct 14 UTC
(+6)
Hand grenade shopping
Does anyone know of some good hand grenades that are both cheap and reliable? I need to equip myself urgently but I'm on a budget.
38 replies
Open
Will the Diplomat (0 DX)
28 Oct 14 UTC
Quick Ancient Med Game
Anyone up to play an Ancient Med Game tonight? maybe have 10 minute periods? pm me if u wanna
0 replies
Open
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
27 Oct 14 UTC
Invitation to help create a word
As above, below.
39 replies
Open
gmeister (93 DX)
28 Oct 14 UTC
Join
Join LIVE-218 phases every 5 minutes
3 replies
Open
ssorenn (0 DX)
28 Oct 14 UTC
Turkey attacking russia in early game
Please discuss with me the merits of attacking russia in the early game.
14 replies
Open
rojimy1123 (597 D)
24 Oct 14 UTC
Slow Boat to Clyde
gameID=149277
Classic, WTA, full press, Semi-anon, 100 point buy-in, 2-day phases
I'll send out the password after sign-up.
50 replies
Open
TheMinisterOfWar (509 D)
28 Oct 14 UTC
Twelve Nobel Peace prize winners all out Obama to close chapter on torture
What can and should Obama do to close the chapter and move on?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/politics/peace-prize-laureates-urge-disclosure-on-us-torture.html?_r=0
0 replies
Open
JamesYanik (548 D)
28 Oct 14 UTC
support move failed?
gameID=149442
if you look on the big map munich's support move failed in autumn 1903, why?
3 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
25 Oct 14 UTC
Global executions for 2013.....
...... much lower than I thought
21 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
23 Oct 14 UTC
Discuss the following idea:
"All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy."
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Thucydides (864 D(B))
26 Oct 14 UTC
"My point is that your point is meaningless because it lacks any practical application and provides no useful insight."

Go back to my examples of real life application of relational thinking. How are those not practical applications and useful insights?

I am not against empiricism, I don't know where you got that idea. I am for reality, and only reality, and nothing else.

But in reality, I don't know if you noticed this or not, everything is connected to everything else. It can't really be denied convincingly.
oscarjd74 (100 D)
26 Oct 14 UTC
"Go back to my examples of real life application of relational thinking. How are those not practical applications and useful insights?"

The problem is that "relational thinking" is yet another one of your ill-defined concepts. Your examples can be fully explained with fluid dynamics, erosion, climate models, soil ecology etc. There is no additional explanatory power in lumping all those theories together under the label "relational thinking". That is, calling it relational thinking does not provide any useful insight.

"I am not against empiricism, I don't know where you got that idea. I am for reality, and only reality, and nothing else."

Since you've stated that you think that analogies are real... your concept of reality seems rather incompatible with empiricism.

"But in reality, I don't know if you noticed this or not, everything is connected to everything else. It can't really be denied convincingly."

I just denied it in my previous post. So obviously, it can really be denied. That means that either your assertion that "it can't really be denied convincingly" is false, or my denial was unconvincing. Well, by all means, tell me what was unconvincing about it. Don't you believe in the theory of relativity? Don't you think event horizons follow from it? Was there some logical flaw in my reasoning?
Thucydides (864 D(B))
26 Oct 14 UTC
Tell me how you can understand history without understanding physics, how you can understand ecology without understanding chemistry, how you can understand poetry without understanding psychology. The world itself is interdisciplinary. Relational thinking is easy to define - it is thinking without boundaries - nothing is off topic.

You yourself showed how analogies are empirically real. Therefore I do not understand why you think it is at odds with empiricism.

Please elaborate on exactly why you think event horizons constitute a total lack of connection between one thing and another thing. My understanding of event horizons is that A) they are not as cut and dry as you describe, eg Hawking radiation, and B), it makes no difference since event horizons arise within time and space, and therefore there is a chronological connection even if there is not a connection in the present moment. Suppose for example that before the big bang there was a larger universe which spawned 100 "big bangs" - their own separate universes that cease to have contact with any other thereafter. The conditions in the original universe that gave rise to each still shape each, and each continues to be connected on that basis, on the basis of the broad Universe that contains all of these.

The word universe can be complicated for this reason, because in astrophysics it means the observable universe, but in metaphysics it means the sum of reality, which does not necessarily cohere exactly with the observable universe, though it certainly would contain it.

The other objection I have is one you yourself raised already - even if you theoretically have two entities in one universe, A and B, that are totally "unconnected" from each other in that they do not influence each other, assuming that each obeys a universal law (i.e. they are themselves both contained in a larger universe), they are connected on that basis, that is, their parentage is the same, and the behavior of each is predicted on a common basis, one of connection.

If you can show me something that exists outside the universe, I welcome the attempt.
oscarjd74 (100 D)
27 Oct 14 UTC
Main point:

My argument is that there is no useful insight or practical application to calling things connected just because they are subject to the same laws of physics. Posting a wall of text about how all stuff is subject to the same laws of physics (which I never disputed) doesn't address that argument.

Useless chitchat:
"Tell me how you can understand history without understanding physics,"

I think it's probably safe to say that most historians can't even do physics at the high school level. And I am certainly not aware of any university that include physics courses in their curriculum for history students. So really, understanding physics is clearly not a prerequisite for understanding history. Historians are and have been getting by just fine without it.

"Relational thinking is easy to define - it is thinking without boundaries - nothing is off topic."

Without boundaries... well, that's about as ill-defined as you can get I guess.

Also, none of the examples you provided actually involve thinking without boundaries as for instance no one in their right mind takes into account neutrinos originating in the Andromeda galaxy when thinking about the economy, permaculture or the rivers on Titan. And rightly so, because those neutrinos and those subjects are for all reasonable intents and purposes not connected.

"You yourself showed how analogies are empirically real. Therefore I do not understand why you think it is at odds with empiricism."

Analogies do not produce photons that can hit my retinas. They don't produce sound waves that can excite my ear drums. They don't form molecules that can interact with my olfactory. They don't produce heat or pressure that I can feel on my skin. They don't interact with any type of measuring device such that I can observe them indirectly. Analogies don't do any of those things and so by any reasonable definition they are not empirically real.

An analogy is just an idea about similarities between two objects or concepts. Sure, some definitions of reality include ideas as real, and as such you could argue that analogies are real. However, in reality as contrasted with what is only in the mind, fictional or abstract though, then no, analogies are not real. They are not physically existent. They are abstract and exist only in the mind.

"Please elaborate on exactly why you think event horizons constitute a total lack of connection between one thing and another thing."

What's to elaborate? An event beyond my event horizon cannot affect me in any way or I it. How can you get more disconnected than that?

"My understanding of event horizons is that A) they are not as cut and dry as you describe, eg Hawking radiation"

Hawking radiation is as of yet a theory without much empirical evidence and it only applies to a submicroscopic region around the event horizon of black holes. It doesn't apply to ordinary event horizons, which are yes, pretty much cut and dry.
semck83 (229 D(B))
27 Oct 14 UTC
"Relational thinking is easy to define - it is thinking without boundaries - nothing is off topic."

Wait, wah? This is certainly not how you were using the phrase earlier, and also not what it would mean under any of the common interpretations of its respective component words. Regardless, I have no issue using all the knowledge available in analyzing every situation. I imagine that's true of most of us. It also has little, if anything to do with analogy.

Of course, oscar is also quite right: even if one is this open-minded, in general the methodologies of a given field are what they are for a reason. Certain ways of thinking are far more fruitful *the vast majority of the time* than others, when studying history, and they're typically different from those used to study physics. But yes certainly, both are studying the same world.
semck83 (229 D(B))
27 Oct 14 UTC
A quibble with oscar's post, though -- without going as far as to contradict him, I'd say it's far from clear to me that analogies are not real; I would rather say they are.

I think the relativity point is a good one, given Thucy's particular claims. Two events outside each other's light cones simply cannot affect each other at all.
oscarjd74 (100 D)
27 Oct 14 UTC
@semck

"A quibble with oscar's post, though -- without going as far as to contradict him, I'd say it's far from clear to me that analogies are not real; I would rather say they are."

I like to define the concept reality such that it excludes thoughts, ideas, fictions, abstractions and falsehoods. Under that definition analogies are not real. Different definitions of the concept reality are possible though and have been used by others. Some of those definitions of reality include analogies and under such a definition, then yes, analogies are real.

As long as we can agree that analogies do not have mass or energy and that they don't interact with any type of matter then I really don't care whether you call them real or not. It's just a semantic issue.
Thucydides (864 D(B))
27 Oct 14 UTC
Sounds like Putin. If you were truly an empiricist you would know that thoughts and ideas are very much real.
Thucydides (864 D(B))
27 Oct 14 UTC
But more than that, an analogy of the kind presented with rivers of earth and of Titan doesn't need mass to be real. The comparison is real, not fictional. The common bond is real. Being subject to the same laws of physics is an empirically real relationship... It's the definition of it in fact. How this does not constitute connection to you somewhat boggles my mind. What mechanism, do you suppose (and you must suppose since we humans do not yet know), binds these disparate objects under one set of laws?


99 replies
Sh@dow (3512 D)
27 Oct 14 UTC
2 players needed
Germany and Italy needed please in salvageable positions for a 12 hour phase and exciting, competitive game.
gameID=148554
11 replies
Open
Valis2501 (2850 D(G))
26 Oct 14 UTC
Muting other players; blocks or hides messages?
If I mute another country in a game, and then unmute them later, would I see messages they posted in global/personally afterwords? Or does it stop the message from ever being seen from me?
12 replies
Open
KingCyrus (511 D)
26 Oct 14 UTC
Ouch
http://gfycat.com/NeglectedEmotionalChupacabra
1 reply
Open
livingghost1 (602 D)
25 Oct 14 UTC
Can you dislodge your own unit?
e.g You're france and you have an army in Burgundy, Marseilles and Paris. Germany also has a unit in Munich.France orders: Bur to Munich, which gets bounced. Paris to Burgundy with support from Marseilles. Germany's army would just hold in Munich. What happens?
14 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
25 Oct 14 UTC
Hypocrisy & Double-Standards
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29771814
All of a sudden the US authorities are pretending to be upset because another kid got killed in the West Bank ..... oh please, stop now!
1 reply
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
25 Oct 14 UTC
John Cantlie - the ISIS Chronicles
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29773780

I fear the worst for Mr Cantlie .... it will end in tears.
0 replies
Open
Al Swearengen (0 DX)
23 Oct 14 UTC
Protip: Accepting Apologies
.

26 replies
Open
krellin (80 DX)
25 Oct 14 UTC
Rooting your Android
So I just bought an HTC One M7, which I very much enjoy (upgraded from a Motorola Razr...blech).

I'm debating as to whether or not to play around with rooting it -- any thoughts? Experience? I actually like HTC Sense....but I very curious about rooting.
9 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
22 Oct 14 UTC
Use of PM messaging for personal attacks
I remember when I joined this site that there were people who used the PM facility to make accusations/comments/personal attacks on as a new member.
78 replies
Open
bo_sox48 (5202 DMod(G))
24 Oct 14 UTC
(+11)
I Found the Draug Gif
I found it.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/16727df3dc259986f34466668bb5ed33/tumblr_nddxf2XzYY1tvf9p0o1_400.gif
16 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
20 Oct 14 UTC
Fall 2014 School of War/Study Group Sign Ups
Making a more official sounding thread to attract more attention.
Looking for a few more students, TAs, and a Prof for new SOW and Study Group games. More details and current participants within.
99 replies
Open
semck83 (229 D(B))
25 Oct 14 UTC
Regulating internet political sites: Discuss
A story to get you going.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dems-on-fec-move-to-regulate-internet-campaigns-blogs-drudge/article/2555270
0 replies
Open
Gunfighter06 (224 D)
24 Oct 14 UTC
ISIL using chlorine gas?
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/24/iraq-isil-chlorine.html

What do you guys think? Is chlorine gas too archaic and ineffective to care about, or is the use of chlorine gas by ISIL significant/pertinent to the issue?
4 replies
Open
obiwanobiwan (248 D)
22 Oct 14 UTC
The London...Whats? An NFL Team for London Town?
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/american-football/29728155 " Chancellor George Osborne says the UK government will support plans for a London-based NFL team"
For all I know, Osborne could be blowing smoke...but even if it didn't (doesn't) happen--suggestions, real or for fun, for a London NFL team name? :p
31 replies
Open
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