An Incorrect Photo of Greg Egan
In issue 265 of Ansible, science fiction author Greg Egan writes:
Powered only by two self-evident memes -- (a) that only one person in 20 million could possibly have a name as exotic as "Greg Egan", and (b) anything found on the web is true and should be copied without question -- photographs of an illustrious professor of electrical engineering from Monash University have been popping up on obscure fannish web sites recently, next to articles about my books.
I admit mine was one such. The silver lining is that he contacted me personally about it last month, and I got to communicate with him. He was extremely kind about it.
In my defense, I carefully specified in the caption that the photo was only alleged to be of him, taking pains to make clear that this was unconfirmed. I treated it like one would treat a blurry photo on a cryptozoology site. (I wish more webpages about unsolved mysteries would take down a photo after it is debunked!)
A particularly egregious example of misuse was when the incorrect photo appeared in a Spanish edition of a Greg Egan novel. Now you tell me: if you saw the photo in that book, would you believe it?
Until his comment, there was more evidence that he looked like Greg Egan of Monash University than there was evidence of what he really looks like. The false hypothesis was weakly substantiated, but the true hypothesis was not substantiated at all. If you possessed a real photo of him, there would be no one to support it. Including him, unless you buy a plane ticket to Australia. Reasonably-diligent research could never show that the author Greg Egan does not look like the professor Greg Egan. There was one piece of evidence in support of the true hypothesis: the professor's university page. It was a needle in a haystack of false positives.
In other words, they don't believe anything on the web should be copied without question. They just have no credible source to question, since Mr. Egan does not make public his contact information. (Except for the Spanish translation, which was done by a publisher who presumably should have been able to contact him. That was just inexcusable.) Realizing this, Mr. Egan has corrected that.
He may also need to put up a webpage denying that he owns a scottish terrier named Yatima, since there is currently no evidence to the contrary.
Comments
atropis on Sep. 8, 2009 5:44 PM
"cryptozoology" is a great word.
tlatoani on Sep. 8, 2009 5:48 PM
Maybe you should invite him to Penguicon.
matt-arnold on Sep. 8, 2009 9:07 PM
The first thing I did for Penguicon 2005 was check the cost of round-trip plane fare from Australia to Detroit. If a not-for-profit all-volunteer SF convention/technology conference could afford it, I would have invited him long ago. He would probably not write back, but it can't hurt to try. If we somehow came up with the money now, I think his first impression of me would not help our cause. :(
Leave a Comment