Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
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Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#2Slashdot discussion:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/06/12/167227/inventor-of-e...
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#3Now, this is exactly what's so crazy about patents.
Something like email doesn't get 'invented' by one person, it's the kind of thing that multiple people will arrive at through different paths at about the same time.
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#4Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care?
This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#5Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care? This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Chomsky is being a polemicist, which has always been his greatest skill.
He has been off on politics rather than linguistics for some time now. E.g. check out http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm (this is a similar pattern to many old scientists)
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#6Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care? This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Chomsky is being a polemicist, which has always been his greatest skill. He has been off on politics rather than linguistics for some time now. E.g. check out http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm (this is a similar pattern to many old scientists)
lolwhat? you're not fit to tie his shoe laces. but then again, weak ad-hominems are a pattern to those who aren't, and/or are admiring the clothes of naked emperors, right?
"old scientist" -- chomsky got dragged into this by paying attention ever since the vietnam war, when not many people did. you irresponsible, ungrateful little fuck! (mod that down, ban me -- it's worth saying something that actually matters)
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#7Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care? This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Chomsky is being a polemicist, which has always been his greatest skill. He has been off on politics rather than linguistics for some time now. E.g. check out http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm (this is a similar pattern to many old scientists)
I don't know what you mean by old, but Chomsky has been an activist for over 40 years now.
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#8Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care? This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Chomsky is interested in power, not semantics. The question "Who invented email?" has a variety of possible meanings, and if you clarify what you mean, the answer follows from the facts. But people don't care what the question means; they care about the prestige attached to the answer. This is more true of Chomsky than of the average person because of his obsession with power. He knows it is an attention-getting question, and he wants to answer it in favor of a powerless underdog who was robbed of his just deserts by well-connected "insiders," because he wants people to see that story everywhere. Therefore Chomsky runs with a particular interpretation of the question and disingenuously says, "The facts are indisputable," when he knows that the facts are the least issue in the dispute.
Chomsky is as much a rhetorician and an entertainer as anyone on the right, though his intelligence and love of underdogs make him a lot more likable than someone like Rush Limbaugh.
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#9Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care? This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Chomsky is being a polemicist, which has always been his greatest skill. He has been off on politics rather than linguistics for some time now. E.g. check out http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm (this is a similar pattern to many old scientists)
I'm aware of Chomsky's political proclivities, but this is purely a debate over the definition of "email". The nature of the actual systems invented is not in dispute, merely what to call them.
Re: Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
#10Chomsky arguing semantics. He's a linguist, he has his hobbies. Why do the rest of us care? This link is quite relevant: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
Chomsky is interested in power, not semantics. The question "Who invented email?" has a variety of possible meanings, and if you clarify what you mean, the answer follows from the facts. But people don't care what the question means; they care about the prestige attached to the answer. This is more true of Chomsky than of the average person because of his obsession with power. He knows it is an attention-getting ques…
This is a very interesting (and plausible) theory about Chomsky's motivations. But again - it's irrelevant to us.
We know who invented which software package and what functionality each one had. The rest is a debate over variable names.