It can be derived with the additional assumption that the only reason a person would have for explicitly comparing things as different as “classical masterpieces” and Weird AI would be that aesthetic enjoyment is held by the person to be fixed-sum and uncompartmentalizable (i.e. they in effect had no choice but to make a comparison to Y when expressing enthusiasm for X). An assumption which in turn follows from the assumption that the person understands the signaling value of explicit aesthetic comparisons, and wouldn’t want to send such a signal unless logically forced.
I suppose in retrospect the great-grandparent could be interpreted as a denial of the latter assumption. Alas.
I suppose in retrospect the great-grandparent could be interpreted as a denial of the latter assumption
It took me a while to realise what you were saying there—I wasn’t expecting an indirect insult!
In that case I’m not sure I was clear: the comment could be interpreted as a denial specifically of the “and wouldn’t want to send such a signal” part. In other words, it conveyed that you didn’t mind being insulting. (Perhaps you consider “I suppose you were willing to be insulting after all” to be itself an insult, in which case the parent is consistent with my having communicated successfully.)
Let’s just say we are in complete disagreement about both the subject and about the validity of the arguments used and leave it at that, shall we?
At this point I really don’t know exactly what we are in disagreement about, if anything, and more to the point I’m not sure I actually want to know. So “leaving it at that” may indeed be optimal for now.
It can be derived with the additional assumption that the only reason a person would have for explicitly comparing things as different as “classical masterpieces” and Weird AI would be that aesthetic enjoyment is held by the person to be fixed-sum and uncompartmentalizable (i.e. they in effect had no choice but to make a comparison to Y when expressing enthusiasm for X). An assumption which in turn follows from the assumption that the person understands the signaling value of explicit aesthetic comparisons, and wouldn’t want to send such a signal unless logically forced.
I suppose in retrospect the great-grandparent could be interpreted as a denial of the latter assumption. Alas.
It took me a while to realise what you were saying there—I wasn’t expecting an indirect insult!
Let’s just say we are in complete disagreement about both the subject and about the validity of the arguments used and leave it at that, shall we?
In that case I’m not sure I was clear: the comment could be interpreted as a denial specifically of the “and wouldn’t want to send such a signal” part. In other words, it conveyed that you didn’t mind being insulting. (Perhaps you consider “I suppose you were willing to be insulting after all” to be itself an insult, in which case the parent is consistent with my having communicated successfully.)
At this point I really don’t know exactly what we are in disagreement about, if anything, and more to the point I’m not sure I actually want to know. So “leaving it at that” may indeed be optimal for now.