4 ms·
If you ask "which president invented coffee", it brings up an inventor named George C. L. Washington who founded a coffee company (and invented a process for in
by oceliker 6y ago
If you ask "which president invented coffee", it brings up an inventor named George C. L. Washington who founded a coffee company (and invented a process for instant coffee). So it kind of merges three separate pieces of information (has same name as a president, is an inventor, worked on coffee) in an entirely incorrect way.
https://www.google.com/search?q=which+president+invented+coffee https://www.google.com/search?q=which+president+invented+cof...
- dragonwriter 6y ago> So it kind of merges three separate pieces of information (has same name as a president, is an inventor, worked on coffee) in an entirely incorrect way. Is it an entirely incorrect way? Or does it present a very reasonable pass at what a person was likely to be looking for if they had a recollection that there was a President who invented coffee, but wanted to know who that was?
- dTal 6y agoEntirely incorrect? Or a spectacular feat of induction on a cryptic crossword clue? Where does one draw the line?
- jjk166 6y agoI think most humans reading the entirely correct sentence "George Washington invented an early instant coffee process" would interpret that to mean "The first US president invented instant coffee." George Washington (the president) had a wide range of careers like surveying and operating a distillery, and further was an avid coffee drinker (the article google cites for me is one claiming he imported 200 pounds of coffee in 1770). Even if you know when instant coffee was invented, the modifier "early" leaves open the possibility that this was some precursor to what we would today call instant coffee.