We Remember Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant | Hacker News Reader

We Remember Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant

jacobin.com

51 pointsughitsaaron36 comments

My apologies.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireStory/noam-chomskys-wife-r...

https://x.com/_pinheira/status/1803155896081518754

> Noam is alive. And well. His wife has just confirmed it

https://x.com/safbf/status/1803154724415287513 Not dead "Shameful and sad that Valeria Chomsky had to deny news of Noam Chomsky’s death over the phone here in Brazil, because a bunch of places decided to publish pre-written obituaries and posts at the first online rumour."

I had always had wanted to ask him if he didn’t think now that his critique of BF Skinner’s “Verbal Behavior” had been wrong after all, and that LLMs are the experimental proof of Skinner’s idea that simple conditioning can give rise to something that, to us, looks like intelligence.

Now I’ll never know.

(But maybe the two of them can have a discussion now in the afterlife, now that their worldly egos and public opinion are out of the way.)

He has discussed this in recent interviews and talks e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chat...

> his critique of BF Skinner’s “Verbal Behavior” had been wrong after all

btw, this is in no way proven (or true imo).

I'd be fairly cautious in assuming that these more recent coauthored pieces by Chomsky represent his views very accurately. They're pretty crude by his standards and don't really read like his writing (though he may well have signed off on them in some sense).

Many interviews with him directly you can check out. Article is consistent with those interviews.

There is some overlap with the content of recent interviews, but only some. In particular, the fussing over what is or isn’t “true intelligence” comes from Watumull and isn’t consistent with Chomsky’s past comments on AI over several decades.

Skinner isn’t mentioned in the article.

Does anyone know why was he taken to Brazil? I know his wife is a Brazilian, but still. Perhaps medical costs?

It’s a very sad news for many of us. Still, knowing what happens with a massive stroke, I think it’s in his best interest to go. It’s going to be horrible, and the situation with caregivers is even more difficult.

> Chomsky, 95, had been admitted to hospital in Brazil, where the couple resides

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/activist-noam-chomsky-...

He wasn't taken, he lives there according to the Standard. Good for him as well! It's an awesome place to be in. :)

No, he was taken by a rental jet from US to Brazil.

> Valeria Chomsky said via email that her 95-year-old husband is in a Sao Paulo hospital, where she took him on an ambulance jet with two nurses once he could more easily travel from the United States following the June 2023 stroke. The couple has had a residence there since 2015.

https://apnews.com/article/noam-chomsky-hospitalized-stroke-...

Seems that you're partially correct. The AP says he was taken on an ambulance jet, not a rental one (or perhaps it's a rental ambulance jet, I don't know).

They also say this happened "once he could more easily travel from the United States following the June 2023 stroke". It sounds to me that they've been wanting to go back to Brazil since then. This may be because they live there and were keen to go back home; it could be because he has his regular doctors there who may be able to provide him with a better treatment; it may be that they would have better support (from his wife's family, for instance)...

In any case, they live there so it stands to reason that they would want to be back as soon as it was feasible.

Recent and related:

Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40641361 - June 2024 (424 comments)

EDIT: they deleted it

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/06/the-noam-chomsky-...

New Statesman saying he's died too

Surprised his Wikipedia page has not been updated. Yet.

Tried to add the death, but other editors are still in disagreement. It's not solidly confirmed yet. I don't think either Jacobin or New Statesmen are reliable sources for this kind of news (they don't usually do breaking news like that).

Debate about it on the talk page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Noam_Chomsky#Is_he_dead%3...

New Statesman deleted it as well

I am not sure his death is confirmed though. Apparently he had a new stroke.

He suffered a massive stroke last June, unfortunately

https://www.medialens.org/2024/a-message-about-noam-chomsky-...

https://tucson.com/news/local/noam-chomsky-hospitalized-afte...

A new one since last week? Link?

New Statesman has an obituary now too, so it seems pretty certain that he has died.

They deleted it

Yes the articles were taken down very shortly

It’s been taken down!

https://archive.ph/P35WA Archived link from the statesmen.

maybe misinformation IG

According to Steven Pinker (who has blocked me on Twitter), Chomsky is alive. https://x.com/sapinker/statu/sapinker/status/180316457011212...

I was too lazy to log out but could see this much from Google search. Pinker said, (28 minutes ago): "Reports today of Noam Chomsky's death (in Jacobin and New Statesman, since taken down) were greatly exaggerated. I have confirmation from..."

Title of article reappeared with modification: Let’s Celebrate Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

They have a discussion going on:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Noam_Chomsky#Is_he_dead?

The moral midget is still alive. Known Khmer Rouge fanboy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide_denial?wpro...

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