Re:FAAAAAKKKEE (Score 2, Interesting)

As one of the Friends of Basil (The people helping to build him) I can assure you that it is not fake. Yes, Basil was taught that a certain sonar return equals a wooden chair, and another sonar return equals a person. Remember, he has 12 sonars to work with. If he gets the return from those 12 sonars for the wooden chair, he calls it such. If he gets a return that is similar, he will say that it could be a wooden chair, or it could be something else. If he's not sure, he would have to orbit the unknown object taking sonar readings, and comparing them to what he already knows about. If all the readings seem to indicate a wooden chair, that's what he calls it. If not, he logs the object until someone tells him what it is. Technically, it doesn't matter what he decides to call it as long as he can distinguish it from any other object. The only reason to tell him what the new object is, would be to facilitate communication. After all, I have no idea what he means when he talks about object 362, but if I tell him that object 362 is a refrigerator, I can now tell him to get me a beer from the refrigerator, and he'll know what to do.