Alfred Korzybski

Korzybski was a Human philosopher. He coined the phrase "A difference which makes no difference is no difference."

In 2267, Montgomery Scott quoted this phrase when talking with Leonard McCoy about whether or not transporters actually created identical duplicates of people then destroyed the original body, and if the soul was also duplicated; he also mentioned that Spock was fond of quoting this phrase. Two weeks later, when a nearly identical duplicate of Spock was created, he quoted this phrase to James T. Kirk to justify allowing the two Spocks to co-exist. 

In 2367, Jean-Luc Picard quoted this phrase in a discussion about the possibility of two parallel universes being nearly identical. 


 * Korzybski's first name, Alfred, was not mentioned in either novel.