Re: Chomsky

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Thu Oct 04 2001 - 09:08:57 MDT


From: "John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
>Chomsky has been saying this since 1959 so it proves one other thing,
> you can be a great scientist and a rotten person.

From: "John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
> There is no more reason to waste time reading Chomsky's
> opinion of current events than Einstein's opinions of Chinese cooking.

I agree. Although Chomsky got it right about the brain and language, there's
no more reason to waste time reading Chomsky's opinion of _current events_
than Einstein's opinions of Zionism, or Bertrand Russell's opinions of
pacifism, or Linus Pauling's opinions of nutrition.
The paleontologist Jack Horner recently summed it up by saying, "When I go off
the deep end someday with a weird theory, I want some grad students to shove a
pole in my face and tell me to go fishing."
Chomsky is yet another example of the tragedy of senility.

--- --- --- --- ---

Useless hypotheses, etc.:
 consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment

We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.



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