You know those hoary old SF stories where the hero defeats the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever by giving it information that can not be logically processed–isn’t “Is the following statement true? ‘This statement is false.'” the classic one?–and thus causing the super-powerful processing of the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever to burn out, usually accompanied by a nice visual of electrical explosions?
Well, whenever I try to process the data below (picked up from William Gibson’s blog, but originally from Vanity Fair) that’s what happens to me. Bolding mine.:
Karl Rove, answering Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire:
Who are your favorite writers?
In alphabetical order: Jorge Luis Borges, Gabor Boritt, Ray Bradbury, G. K. Chesterton, Winston Churchill, David Herbert Donald, T. S. Eliot, Joseph Ellis, Gary Gallagher, F. A. Hayek, Paul Horgan, Paul Johnson, Tom Lea, C. S. Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, John D. MacDonald, David McCullough, Merrill Peterson, Robert Remini, Andrew Roberts, William Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, Evelyn Waugh, and Robert Wiebe.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Travis McGee or Borges himself. (Was he real? Or not?)
Bzzzt
Click
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt
BOOM!
2 comments for “Can Not Process Data”