Did you notice?

[Welverin]

No, it was no UFO, but an USO (Unkown Smoking Object)...

How about a USO show on a flat bed?

Rhialto, have you considered the fact you see a house because you've convinced yourself there's a house there?

 

[Rhialto]

Rhialto, have you considered the fact you see a house because you've convinced yourself there's a house there?

Well, let's see...

I watched it carefully, with no preconcieved notion of what it was, and said to myself, 'It's a house.'

As opposed to a horde of nitpickers who want to see cars, and are thus predisposed to see them, and the ones who would follow them later, who had been told it was a car, believed it utterly and were also, thus predisposed to see it as such.

 

[Dr Midnight]

I watched it carefully, with no preconcieved notion of what it was, and said to myself, 'It's a house.'

Why would you be watching carefully, if you had no preconceived notion that something was there?

 

[Rhialto]

Because I'd heard the stories about the car, BUT HADN'T BEEN UTTERLY CONVINCED BY THEM! I watched to see if it was a car, or not, and when I saw it, I saw it was not.

 

[Dr Midnight]

So you watched with a preconceived notion of a car.

 

[Rhialto]

No, I did not. I watched it with a preconcieved notion that there was something there, and that some people said it was car. That is a bit different than watching while thinking 'There's a car in a shot!'.

 

[Dr Midnight]

You watched carefully, knowing that some people claimed there would be a car in that shot. You watched with a preconceived notion of a car.

 

[Rhialto]

Look, this whole thing is degenerating into semantic nonsense. 'A preconcieved notion of a car' means that a person genuinely believes that there is a car in the film, based on what people have told them. Not quite the same as watching it with the awareness that some people claim that there is a car in a shot. You may think this doesn't make a difference--I happen to know it does.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Not quite the same as watching it with the awareness that some people claim that there is a car in a shot.

Yes, it is. That awareness is a preconceived notion.

You may think this doesn't make a difference--I happen to know it does.

You sure do.

 

[Rhialto]

Yes, it is. That awareness is a preconceived notion.

Listen, you and I obviously have different opinions as to what constitutes a 'preconceived notion'. I take my meaning from the word "preconcieve"--"to form an idea in advance". As in a "preconception"--"an opinion formed beforehand--a bias." Or to put it simply--merely knowing that some people see a car in the film is not a preconceived notion, since it does not nessicarily bias one. Actually believing there is a car there, and that you will be able to spot it, is.

You sure do.

Damn straight.

(And yes, I'm aware that you were being sarcastic. I'm just choosing to ignore it.)