Seaching for some corroboration of this I came across this little gem in the Simple English Wikiquotes:
Replying to following question by Deborah Solomon in Questions for Douglas Hofstadter: "Your entry in Wikipedia says that your work has inspired many students to begin careers in computing and artificial intelligence." He replied "I have no interest in computers. The entry is filled with inaccuracies, and it kind of depresses me." When asked why he didn't fix it, he replied, "The next day someone will fix it back."[6]
Simple: Deborah Solomon asked Douglas Hofstadter a question. Deborah Solomon said something that meant, "Your page on Wikipedia has made many students think about having jobs with computers and the way computer's think." Douglas Hofstadter said something that meant, "I do not like doing things with computers. The page has many errors, and I am sad at that." Solomon then asked Hofstadter why he did not fix it. Hofstadter said something that meant, "I did not fix it become someone will fix it back the next day – they will put the errors back in."
What it means: Hofstadter is saying that while Wikipedia can have errors sometimes, it can be fixed very fast by one of its many users.
Maybe he has a point!
I was the Wikipedian who spotted that NYT Mag interview (in my RSS feeds) and added it to the En page, and we interpreted it correctly as Hofstadter's dislike of us. I disavow Simple in general: it's the neglected bastard of En and ought to be put to sleep like the 9/11 or Klingon wikis.
The Open Thread posted at the beginning of the month has gotten really, really big, so I've gone ahead and made another one. Post your new discussions here!
This thread is for the discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts. If a discussion gets unwieldy, celebrate by turning it into a top-level post.