Followup to: Humans in Funny Suits
This fallacy gets its name from an ancient sci-fi TV show, which I never saw myself, but was reported to me by a reputable source (some guy at an SF convention). Anyone knows the exact reference, do leave a comment.
So the good guys are battling the evil aliens. Occasionally, the good guys have to fly through an asteroid belt. As we all know, asteroid belts are as crowded as a New York parking lot, so their ship has to carefully dodge the asteroids. The evil aliens, though, can fly right through the asteroid belt because they have amazing technology that dematerializes their ships, and lets them pass through the asteroids.
Eventually, the good guys capture an evil alien ship, and go exploring inside it. The captain of the good guys finds the alien bridge, and on the bridge is a lever. "Ah," says the captain, "this must be the lever that makes the ship dematerialize!" So he pries up the control lever and carries it back to his ship, after which his ship can also dematerialize.
Similarly, to this day, it is still quite popular to try to program an AI with "semantic networks" that look something like this:
(apple is-a fruit)
(fruit is-a food)
(fruit is-a plant)
Continue reading "Detached Lever Fallacy" »
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