Does this make any sense?
Well, you know that I know that he knows that you know that he knows that we know that he knows what he’s talking about. I, on the other hand, have no idea.
I think Rumsfeld was channeling Gene Wilder for a moment 
“Reports that say something hasn’t happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns; there things we know we know,” Rumsfeld told the briefing.
“We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
This is how I interpret it. There are things in life that we know quite a bit about, and there are things that we don't know much about.
For example, we have everyday math. An everyday math problem is 314 divided by 6. Although you may not know the specific answer to the problem, it is a known unknown because you have enough information to be able to solve the problem.
On the other hand, there's hovering cars. They haven't been invented yet because it is an "unknown unknown". There is inadequate available information to be able to even begin forming a solution to the problem.Not exactly how I interpret it.
I would have said that a hovering car is a “known unknown” - in as much as its something we know that we don’t know how to make.
An “unknown unknown” is, for example, before we knew there was microwave radiation floating around (I’m sorry, I don’t know if radiation ‘floats’) it was something that we didn’t know existed, or in other words – something we didn’t know we didn’t know.
Known known: 1 + 1 = 2
Known unknown: Unified Field Theory
Unknown unknown: HIV in 1975
Here’s what last year’s winner, Richard Gere, said:
“I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I’d think ‘No, actually I am a giraffe.’”
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/footinmouth.html
Bravo, Richard, bravo…
Rumsfeld’s bumper sticker probably doesn’t say, “Eschew obfuscation!”.
I think he knows that he doesn’t know that he knows that… Uh…
Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger,
MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM!
Did you know he was also a poet?
1984, a favorite of Mr. Rumsfeld, one assumes.
Hmmm, I don’t like Rummy, and had a good giggle at the statement, but I understand exactly what he’s saying - just as Fang exemplified. I think it’s indicative that his audience has trouble keeping up with his verbal acrobatics, rather than him making no sense.
Surely it is presumptuous to say “There are some unknown unknowns…” - he should have said “There may or may not be one or more unknown unknowns - the one or ones we don’t know we don’t know, but we don’t know if there are any unknown unknowns until such time as they become known unknowns; then we will know that there is an unknown or several unknowns - until that time, we don’t know if there are any unknown unknowns.”
That would have cleared it up.
Gen. Tommy Franks, during the Afghanistan war, said, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
I was stunned. It was profound, and yet absurd. I love it.