When I first read this post back in ~2011 or so, I remember remembering a specific scene in a book I had read that talked about this error and even gave it the same name. I intended to find the quote and post it here, but never bothered. Anyway, seeing this post on the front page again prompted me to finally pull out the book and look up the quote (mostly for the purpose of testing my memory of the scene to see if it actually matched what was written).
So, from Star Wars X-Wing: Isard’s Revenge, by Michael A Stackpole (page 149 of the paperback edition):
Tycho stood. “It’s called the gray fallacy. One person says white, another says black, and outside observers assume gray is the truth. The assumption of gray is sloppy, lazy thinking. The fact that one person takes a position that is diametrically opposed to the truth does not then skew reality so the truth is no longer the truth. The truth is still the truth.”
So maybe not exactly the same sentiment as this post, but not a bad rationality lesson for a Star Wars book, really.
(for those interested: my memory of the scene was pretty much accurate, although it occurred much later in the book than I had thought)
When I first read this post back in ~2011 or so, I remember remembering a specific scene in a book I had read that talked about this error and even gave it the same name. I intended to find the quote and post it here, but never bothered. Anyway, seeing this post on the front page again prompted me to finally pull out the book and look up the quote (mostly for the purpose of testing my memory of the scene to see if it actually matched what was written).
So, from Star Wars X-Wing: Isard’s Revenge, by Michael A Stackpole (page 149 of the paperback edition):
So maybe not exactly the same sentiment as this post, but not a bad rationality lesson for a Star Wars book, really.
(for those interested: my memory of the scene was pretty much accurate, although it occurred much later in the book than I had thought)