[extropy-chat] META: Re: what is probability?

[Anders Sandberg]

Damien Broderick wrote:
>>The existence of one active thread does not preclude the existence of
>>other active threads.
>
> But oddly enough, it does seem to. Especially in the absence of a few
> quite different threads already in play. I suppose it's a bit like
> two or three people loudly picking nits in the middle of a dinner
> party, it seems to dry up the rest of the conversations and other
> people tend to tighten their lips and leave early. It *shouldn't*
> work that way in cyberspace, especially among intellectuals
> accustomed to the seminar room, but we're creatures of habit and the
> social body...

Your comment got me to analyse a bit of mailing list data rather
throughly, producing the following result:
http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2007/01/competing_threads.html
At least in the case of that mailing list I did not see any evidence for
thread competition. Maybe it happens here anyway, maybe it is more a form
of attention competition or maybe just availability bias.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University