We Remember Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant • Hacker News Board

Re: We Remember Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant

#41

Post by aborsy » Wed, Jun 19, 2024, 12:34 PM UTC

cassianoleal wrote: post #40

aborsy wrote: post #29

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.

Re: We Remember Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant

#42

Post by cassianoleal » Wed, Jun 19, 2024, 12:50 PM UTC

aborsy wrote: post #41

cassianoleal wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Re: We Remember Noam Chomsky, the Intellectual and Moral Giant

#43

Post by leobg » Wed, Jun 19, 2024, 8:22 PM UTC

leto_ii wrote: post #24

leobg wrote: post #14

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 opin…

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).

Skinner isn’t mentioned in the article.