pgbh comments on Rationality Quotes December 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Salemicus 03 December 2014 10:33PM

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Comment author: pgbh 31 December 2014 02:03:21AM *  0 points [-]

After reading Contrafactus, a friend said to me: "My uncle was almost President of the U.S.!"

"Really?" I said.

"Sure," he replied, "he was skipper of the PT 108." (John F. Kennedy was skipper of the PT 109).

-- Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach

Comment author: timujin 31 December 2014 08:57:27AM 1 point [-]

It is a good quote in general, but not quite a rationality quote.

Comment author: pgbh 01 January 2015 08:17:53PM 0 points [-]

I thought it was a nice illustration of the distinction between map and territory, or between different maps of the same territory. In other words, JFK and the speaker's uncle were very close together by a certain map, but that doesn't mean they were very similar in real life.