If the counts weren't public until after voting were closed, do you think people would vote significantly differently?
My instinct says they wouldn't.
What was this image?
Insufficient data for meaningful answer
Nothing?
I don't think these examples are quite security theater. A good bike lock makes your bike harder to steal; a "theatrical" bike lock would mostly just make it look harder to steal. Even a skinny cable lock, the sort you can cut with fingernail clippers, keeps it from being stolen by passers-by who don't have fingernail clippers.
(Of course, the same argument applies to the TSA, so maybe I'm just wrong about what "security theater" means.)
Exceptions (which I think is what you mean by edge cases) DO indicate that a rule is incomplete or not universal.
Yes! But rules don't have to be complete or universal to be acceptable.
Rules about people should be more formally correct than is implied by this post.
I think I see what you're getting at. My instinct kinda runs the other way, though: if people don't fit neatly into categories (and you care about the edge cases), it might be better to throw out the rule entirely rather than formalize it and categorize those edge cases. Could you give an example of where formalizing would be helpful?
(Epistemic status: obvious in retrospect)
A standard thought experiment: design an artificial neuron that works just like a biological one. Then, replace the neurons in someone's brain, one by one. If consciousness is tied to the atoms of the neurons, or their biochemistry, then the person must not be conscious afterwards; but when did they become unconscious? It's hard to imagine them crossing a hidden threshold and becoming a p-zombie. Therefore, an artificial brain must be just as conscious as a biological brain.[1]
No, wait, don't do that. Instead of replacing the neurons, just remove them. Clearly, one missing neuron won't render someone unconscious. Therefore, an empty skull is just as conscious as a... (read 399 more words →)
Could you expand on this? What are the fnords?
How do you avoid bug bites?
That makes sense. I guess I'm mostly reacting to the last sentence, which adds a moral aspect.
(I'm also not 100% sure how much the last sentence is a joke, or deliberate exaggeration?)
I liked that bit. It made the ceremony feel like a closed container, so it was OK to "wake up" and talk normally with my friends. As you point out, there was in fact some lingering symbolism, but that's OK.