publication date: Sunday, February 7, 2021 (part of Winter 2021)

category: Philosophy

clue: This Scottish philosopher believed that our idea of self derived entirely from our lived experience, for example the experience of your partner being killed by rogue androids and your captain assigning you an advanced android as your new partner.

explanation: Hume inspired the name of David Hume on Total Recall 2070. more…

intended difficulty: medium

solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Samir Mehta, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, Denise Sawicki, Erik Bates, Aaron Shurtleff, and Ruth Cichoski

Sci-Fi Namesakes: Science fiction is a genre of ideas, and the best ideas are the ones connected to reality. This two-week theme presents 14 real-life people who inspired the names of characters in sci-fi TV shows, including shows with fantastical elements not normally considered sci-fi. Dr. Who, I presume?

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John Locke

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Mikhail Bakunin

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Syd Barrett

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John F. Kennedy

His assassination in November 1963 birthed many conspiracy theories about lone gunmen, and one lone gunman was literally birthed on the same day. Go »

Art Bell

This paranormal investigator spent years shining a light into the blackest shadows of supernatural mysteries on his bicoastal AM show, which would have made him the right man to look into a case of identical cloned orphans. Go »

Harry S. Truman

Being the president of the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s was a far more important elected office to hold than, say, being sheriff of a very strange valley town in Washington state roiled by a teenager's murder. Go »