It is also likely that there are considerations of critical importance that I fail to take into account, thereby invalidating some or all of my conclusions.
I have gone to some length to indicate nuances and degrees of uncertainty throughout the comment's text— encumbering it with an unsightly smudge of “possibly,” “might,” “may,” “could well,” “it seems,” “probably,” “very likely,” “almost certainly.” Each qualifier has been placed where it is carefully and deliberately. Yet these topical applications of epistemic modesty are not enough; they must be supplemented here by a systemic admission of uncertainty and fallibility.
This is not false modesty: for while I believe that my comments are likely to be seriously wrong and misleading, I think that the alternative views that have been presented in the threads are substantially worse.
