[Dylan16807]

Your pointer scenario could have the same warning, but it does not match the scenario in the post. In the post, we have """the message""" displayed on screen. It's not a simple dangling pointer, the contents are right there.

We're standing inside the living room while saying the house doesn't exist. And as soon as we walk out the living room will disappear.

[routerl]

I'm sorry, I miss things nowadays, but I don't see where the post states that the message is still available.

If it is, that's probably a desync issue, like others have said. Still not particularly mysterious or ontologically interesting. So much of parallel and distributed programming is about solving desync problems.

[Dylan16807]

> I'm sorry, I miss things nowadays, but I don't see where the post states that the message is still available.

I put it in super scare quotes for a reason, because it depends on what you mean by "message".

But the text is still on the screen. That's why you can copy it.

> If it is, that's probably a desync issue, like others have said. Still not particularly mysterious or ontologically interesting. So much of parallel and distributed programming is about solving desync problems.

If it's just a desync, then it could resync things if it wanted to. Instead it gives a confusing and contradictory warning.

The way the warning contradicts itself is pretty interesting, and I and the author think it's fun to delve into how the word "message" is supposed to be defined here, and how it's causing problems.

But it's not simply a reference to a thing that's gone. It's not actually gone yet. It's a ghost.