gwern comments on Fermi Estimates - Less Wrong

51 Post author: lukeprog 11 April 2013 05:52PM

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Comment author: gwern 10 April 2013 07:04:12PM 1 point [-]

I was basing my notion on having heard that a piano was a standard feature of a Victorian parlor.

Sure, but think how small a fraction of the population that was. Most of Victorian England was, well, poor; coal miners or factory workers working 16 hour days, that sort of thing. Not wealthy bourgeoisie with parlors hosting the sort of high society ladies who were raised learning how to play piano, sketch, and faint in the arms of suitors.

An upright piano just wouldn't be as funny.

Unless it's set in a saloon! But given the low population density of the Old West, this is a relatively small error.