TheDarkling wrote:This is classic case of what happens to darkstars arguments, The Deathstar was another examlpe of this - while some valid points were raised alot of people were running around because Darkstar used the phrase "anti-Genesis effect".
Darkstar's points are only "valid" if you are completely ignorant of scientific methods. One does not invent imaginary mechanisms unless they are
absolutely necessary in order to explain something. If you can successfully explain something
without resorting to such inventions (or if the invention's success in that endeavour is no better than yours), then the logical principle of parsimony means that you slice it out, ie- Occam's Razor.
I know what you'll say: "stop beating me over the head with that damned Occam's Razor!" Well, too bad. It is a logical principle, and it is part of the scientific method.
When faced with two theories which appear to be deadlocked (as you say, although some would object), you can break the deadlock with Occam's Razor; that is precisely what Occam's Razor is for. In the Deathstar argument and the Borg KE argument, you argue that he makes valid points, but the "points" he makes are only that his alternate theory can match the existing theory (all attempts to show that it is
vastly superior are due to his inherent self-promotional streak and are easily shot down), and since both theories invent an additional mechanism, they need to do more than merely match up to the mainstream theory; they need to convincingly crush it. They do not do this (even
you acknowledge that it seems a toss-up either way), so their inclusion of extra mechanisms represents unnecessary multiplication of terms, ie- Occam's Razor means that it loses.
Do you understand this? When someone proposes an "alternate theory" which incorporates an extra mechanism,
a tie is not enough. It has to convincingly whip the mainstream theory, or its extra mechanism means that it loses.