Q. Why does "philosophy of consciousness/nature of reality" seem to interest you so much?
A. Take away consciousness and reality and there's not much left.
-- Greg Egan, interview in Eidolon 15
"But I am not an object. I am not a noun, I am an adjective. I am the way matter behaves when it is organized in a John K Clark-ish way. At the present time only one chunk of matter in the universe behaves that way; someday that could change."
-- John K Clark
"Would it be good advice, once copying becomes practical, to make lots of copies when good things happen, and none (or perhaps even killing off your own personal instance) on bad things? Will this change the subjective probability of good events?"
-- Hal Finney
"Waiting for the bus is a bad idea if you turn out to be the bus driver."
-- Michael M. Butler on the Singularity
"You are free. Free of anything I do or say, and of any consequence. You may rest assured that all hurts are forgiven, all loveliness remembered, and treasured. I am busy and content and loved. I hope you are the same. Bless you."
-- Walter Jon Williams, "Knight Moves"
"A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never sure."
-- Lee Segall
Good point. In fact I am far more likely to be sure when I have two timekeeping devices than when I have one and of those times when the man with one watch is sure but the man with two watches is not the man sure with one watch is sure and wrong over half the time.
I hope the intended rationality lesson here is approximately the opposite of the colloquial interpretation.
What colloquial interpretation is there to this that you don't like? I would have read it as "Before trusting a watch, consider how well multiple watches agree with each other."