Comments on: Hail to Our Martian, or Perhaps Simian, Overlords

By: Ken MacLeod

Ken MacLeod — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:43:30 +0000

I agree with most of the points made above, and don’t take the poll too seriously. Still, I got a short story out of it, ‘Wilson at Woking’.

By: Roderick

Roderick — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:08:17 +0000

But the answer was yes.

By: Araglin

Araglin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:43:47 +0000

I just saw the bit in Charles H.’s prior comment referencing ‘rigid designators’ (which was just the piece of Kripkean jargon that I was grasping for), which means that my own comment was more or less rendundant. My apologies….

By: Araglin

Araglin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:38:39 +0000

Without having read your comment on King Arthur, might I venture to say that whether “yes” is a true answer to the question of “whether King Arthur existed” could end up turning on the sorts of arcane philosophical issues hashed out in Kripke’s Naming and Necessity?

By: Roderick

Roderick — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:08:49 +0000

Yes, that was my comment on King Arthur that I just referred to above.

By: Charles H.

Charles H. — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:27:54 +0000

I’m always wary when I see a study that confirms many people’s existing bias that the great, unwashed masses are dumb. I’d have to see more information about how the study was conducted. For example, if they just stopped people in the street, Jay Leno-style, and asked these questions quickly people might say anything just to get rid of them. And I’m sure there’s a statistically significant section of the population who’d say Blackadder was real just for a laugh. Other answers are just ambiguous — there are several historical figures that may have served as models for the King Arthur of legend, some of whom might even have been named “Arthur” or something like it, so your answer to “Was King Arthur real?” might depend on your exact take on rigid designators.

By: Roderick

Roderick — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:39:46 +0000

Admittedly some of those percentages (like the ones for Xena, Cylons, and apes) are low enough to dismiss — and I defend King Arthur in the comments section. But the numbers for Mussolini and Hitler are surprising.