(29-08-2019, 03:20 PM)doranchak Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.identify meaninglessness
Wouldn't this be trying to prove a negative, though? I'm a scientist who has never worked in academe or research, but I thought that statements put to the test by scholars are stated in positive terms, that is, they propose something *more* than what's apparent or established, and they get put to the test by scholars trying to prove them wrong. The longer a statement gets tested and fails to be knocked down, the more confidence one can have in assuming it true and given for all practical purposes. The null hypothesis is that the text of the VMS contains no written communication from one sentient and literate being to another. So far, no one has been able to show this statement to be definitively false. There certainly is much *information* in the VMS, and the symbolic forms this information takes certainly *looks* and *feels* communicative and linguistic. But the inability of both scholars and laymen, including skilled and cutting edge information scientists, to parse this raw data in a way that reveals any sort of communication whatsoever is frankly awestriking. Because the null hypothesis, miraculously after some heavy and strategic bombardment, still stands.
I'm sorry to nitpick, it's just that your use of *meaningless* strikes me as imprecise. *Non-communicative* is what I think you're trying to say. On the contrary, I would argue the VMS has been very meaningful to... all present company, really, and a long chain of brilliant and imaginative minds that we remember and whose legacies we carry on. It's a rabbit hole into Wonderland, where nothing is quite as it seems and we look at ourselves and the whole human condition in some odd mirrors. Because as long as there is some new way of processing the VMS's information, there is some new hope that it will yield a message, through centuries of time.
One type of meaning that some who've gone down this rabbit hole have come out with, is that others need to be warned, lest they waste large amounts of time and effort, and come away with nothing but frustration. Since the lack of any apparent message in the VMS's symbols already goes without saying until proven otherwise, what might move someone to state it anyway, in some cases *ad nauseam*? Frustration definitely comes to mind as one possible motivator. The label of *skeptic* does not suit me, but I've read opinion pieces by self-described skeptics defending themselves against stereotypes of curmudgeonly and spoilsport tendencies, and talking about what motivates them to be skeptics. And although my temperament is different, I can see how for them, habitually challenging and investigating any statement of fact that isn't readily apparent or established is a part of their mission in life and an important part of how they engage with the world.