[Alex3917]

For what it's worth, here is a thread I started on the Wikipedia mailing list in May 2005, which I believe was the first public debate about this:

http://marc.info/?l=wikipedia-l&m=111502457428025

There are a ton of interesting posts from Jimbo, SJ, et al. Here are a couple of key comments by Jimbo about where his beliefs came from:

http://marc.info/?l=wikipedia-l&m=111503845405275&w=...

http://marc.info/?l=wikipedia-l&m=111521774525655&w=...