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Yes, I am engaging in a false analogy. My intention was to humorously showcase specialized tools at a much further level of differentiation. And a passenger car

Yes, I am engaging in a false analogy. My intention was to humorously showcase specialized tools at a much further level of differentiation. And a passenger car is as different from a panel (flatbed) truck as a hand-driven gasoline car is from a solar-powered self-driving car. I was attempting to highlight that these tools have nearly equivalent purposes, but the educated consumer would have a definite preference for one or the other, depending on plans and situations.

vonmoltke 11y ago
> And a passenger car is as different from a panel (flatbed) truck as a hand-driven gasoline car is from a solar-powered self-driving car. I disagree. The function of a panel truck is the transport of bulky and heavy materials. The function of a passenger car is the transport of people with fairly small amounts of materials. Changing the power plant or control system does not change these fundamental functions or fundamental design decisions that go into the system as a whole. > I was attempting to highlight that these tools have nearly equivalent purposes They don't, just like a passenger car and panel truck do not have nearly equivalent purposes. Yes, an oven and a grill both cook food. A passenger car and a panel truck both move people and items. Each of these is specialized to cover a certain subset of the problem space within those areas, though. Making one better at covering its problem space does not change what it fundamentally is, and self-driving vehicles are just an improvement in covering the existing problem space.
- stephengillie 11y ago
  My apologies for coming up with an imperfect analogy. In the future, I will endeavor to find a perfect analogy before I attempt to use it humorously. Thank you for taking the time to show me the error of my ways. What would HN be without people like you to clear up analogical inconsistencies?
  - rurounijones 11y ago
    To be fair; as the OP I didn't find the original comment humourous but dismissive and therefore rather insulting (Hence I never bothered to follow up) as well as many issues with the "Analogy".

vonmoltke 11y ago

> And a passenger car is as different from a panel (flatbed) truck as a hand-driven gasoline car is from a solar-powered self-driving car. I disagree. The function of a panel truck is the transport of bulky and heavy materials. The function of a passenger car is the transport of people with fairly small amounts of materials. Changing the power plant or control system does not change these fundamental functions or fundamental design decisions that go into the system as a whole. > I was attempting to highlight that these tools have nearly equivalent purposes They don't, just like a passenger car and panel truck do not have nearly equivalent purposes. Yes, an oven and a grill both cook food. A passenger car and a panel truck both move people and items. Each of these is specialized to cover a certain subset of the problem space within those areas, though. Making one better at covering its problem space does not change what it fundamentally is, and self-driving vehicles are just an improvement in covering the existing problem space.

stephengillie 11y ago
My apologies for coming up with an imperfect analogy. In the future, I will endeavor to find a perfect analogy before I attempt to use it humorously. Thank you for taking the time to show me the error of my ways. What would HN be without people like you to clear up analogical inconsistencies?
- rurounijones 11y ago
  To be fair; as the OP I didn't find the original comment humourous but dismissive and therefore rather insulting (Hence I never bothered to follow up) as well as many issues with the "Analogy".