These seem a bit contradictory.
I thought he meant: ‘But which robot?’
Ah. Could be.
So, a 21st century fictional robot…
ETA: i couldn’t wait. I googled the answer.
Tik-Tok of Oz?
Yep. Thanx for clarifying it.
Yes but which robot.?
No. Tik-Tok was never in the Spanish-American War or World War I.
The book was written in 21st century. He was first written about in the 20th century (AD 2000)
Hint: In universe he was revealed in 1893.
Some clarification needed here.
There’s an apparent contradiction, or am I missing something?
As far as YOU know.
Yes, you are missing something.
I feel like I’ve been missing something from the beginning. “Despite exploring Antarctica, serving during the Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion and declared missing-in-action during World War I, he never existed.” — it’s not, AFAICT, lateral thinking to look at that and say, “oh, so, a fictional character.” And from there, AFAICT it’s just been a Do-You-Already-Know-Thi challenge that, well, nobody seems to know; we can’t get it with questions, we either already know about this fictional character or we just — don’t?
If others want me to reveal it, I will.
The phrasing of the quote you gave was my way of saying that even though he is a fictional character, he was presented in his history as if he really existed and that these were historical explorations.
Did many people believe that it was a real historical account?
Would most of us recognize this character? Would we have known them before the book was published?
Had he been presented as doing all that historical stuff before the book was published?
(And I had the same thought as The_Other_Waldo_Pepper - I’m trying to find the angle that makes this a lateral thinking puzzle and not just a trivia question.)
That sounds to me like how fiction works in general?
I think when we read fictional works, we know that Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Irwin R. Fletcher, et al are fictional characters.
But since this one seems to have gone off the rails.
So, for clarification, the book is fiction, there was no Boilerplate?
Can you please explain the seeming contradiction between “One book published after 2001” and “He was first written about in the 20th century (AD 2000)”
There was an Uncle Sam at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.
He was written about on their website in 2000.
The president might have one, and a certain deceased animal does have one. No one else. What is it?