Recursive Prophet's definitions

censorsplit

When a moderator on a discussion forum splits off a batch of replies to another thread for purposes primarily related to censoring viewpoints they disagree with by removing them from the larger, ongoing debate and marginalizing their impact.

While the site was owned by well known skeptic educational foundation, staff were apparently instructed to use a 'divide and conquer' strategy in dealing with any dissent. Arguments critical of policy were often split to new threads for being 'off topic,' thus diluting both their continuity and traction. It was a subtle form of censorship one wag dubbed as the 'censorsplit strategy.'

by Recursive Prophet September 13, 2009

futronym

Futronym: a neologism that by common usage and functionality is clearly destined to be added to the lexicon at some future point. In part it will serve as an antonym to 'retronym.' See 'Antoneologym.'

Email and Eddress (email address) are both futronyms. The former will be elevated soon due to its common usage, while the latter shall come later owing to it's functionality. Both will soon be found in most dictionaries.

by Recursive Prophet November 28, 2007

retrosexual

One who has reached an age where all sexual desire is reduced to memories.

Thinking of the girls he had known when young, the old man could still get momentarily horny. But he never had such feelings about women he didn't know and lust after in the past, and had no desire to reconnect with those he did, except in his memories of them; in the bloom of their youth.

He was a true retrosexual.

by Recursive Prophet January 4, 2008

pentamnemonic

A mnemonic based on every 5th item to be remembered, using one's fingers as a kind of abacus. You put up one finger for each one as you go along. When you reach the fifth finger, that becomes the first letter of the mnemonic. This device works well when the number of entities to be recalled is too large for conventional mnemonics to easily accommodate.

Example: Nlnci Sjgai is one possible pentamnemonic for all the countries with some coastline on the continent of Eurasia. If you start with the western-most point-Portugal-and go clockwise around the coast, your first 'bookmark country' is Netherlands, and you end with Italy. (Just add on Monaco, the 51st country) Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, NETHERLANDS: Germany, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, LITHUANIA. When your little finger gets extended, you must always arrive on a country that begins with one of the consecutive letters in Nlnci Sjgai, or you forgot a country.

by Recursive Prophet November 27, 2007

untological

An argument unto itself that arose to refute the ontological 'proof' for the existence of a guiding intelligence that created the universe with a 'purpose' behind the many observable processes.

According to this theory, on-tology is invalid un-til a process is discovered that requires an omnipotent intelligence at the core of it's genesis. Until then, such conjectures will be categorized onto the class of unsubstantiated presuppostions.

It is possible that atheists will find themselves in an untological cul-de-sac if they continue to reject any form of purpose or objective in the process of evolution. It may not be sound science, but it would be pragmatic politically.

by Recursive Prophet January 11, 2008

straw herring

When an argument is rebutted by saying it is both a 'red herring' and a 'straw man.' (Usually done at different times.) As the two fallacies are incongruent, this term itself will eventually be incorporated into informal logic as a fallacy.

My opponent's counter argument is a straw herring. First he claims my example is an irrelevant distraction from the topic, (red herring)then goes on to assert I created it using his words out of context so I could attack this erroneous extrapolation of his words and then declare victory. (straw man)

by Recursive Prophet January 17, 2009

Harrypothesis

A proposed scientific hypothesis that is more in the realm of Harry Potter than actual science.

Many considered the conjecture that the apparent wind created by the motion of a treadmill was the same as natural wind created by pressure gradients to be just another Harrypothesis.

by recursive prophet February 26, 2010