Reading the documentation

[Rustom Mody]

On Friday, August 25, 2017 at 9:09:16 AM UTC+5:30, Larry.... at gmail.com wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 11:27 PM, Rustom Mody  wrote:
> > Chomsky is in the Turing bracket, I wonder where Larry falls wrt CS
> 
> I have a degree in Software Engineering from Rochester Institute of
> Technology. I stared programming when I was 16, and I have worked
> professionally since I was 19. I am 57 now.

I was pointing to the link between Chomsky and Computer Science (CS)

Chomsky is at least 3 things

1. A pioneer of CS¹
2. A linguist²
3. A political activist³
4. Much else⁴

1 and 2 are obviously linked
My original reference to Chomsky was wrt 2
Because of 1 he is on-topic on a programming mailing list — hopefully!

You can bring in 3 if you like… I didn't
And then someone is going to red-flag the OT-ness of the discussion

For now I will only say (in response to Steven's)

> Chomsky challenges the prevailing world-view that the USA is a force for good,
> by documenting the many, many, many ways that the USA's actions are harmful,
> unjust, illegal (occasionally all three at once) and in contradiction to the
> nation's stated values. Many people don't like it when you challenge their
> cherished myths.

As one of the 19/20th of the world that is not a US citizen I would have thought 
it axiomatic:
When the world's most powerful nation remains that for too long,
its only a question of time before it becomes the world's most lethal
terrorist⁵ organization.

This was true of Britain 100 years ago
It was true of Rome 1000 years ago
And it would be inexorably true for any grouping following from the axiom:
“Power corrupts; Absolute power absolutely corrupts”

Which is why I agree and disagree with Steven's above characterization:
- It is literally true
- Its implication that the current holder of absolute power is somehow special is false




¹ http://www.soc.napier.ac.uk/~andrew/co42010/kentucky/languages/langnote.pdf
² http://blog.mangolanguages.com/noam-chomsky-his-contribution-to-linguistics/
³ https://youtu.be/5BXtgq0Nhsc
⁴ eg an anti-Israel jew https://youtu.be/zWaLuVQ_LCc
⁵ The word 'terrorist' today (like 'communist' 50 years ago) is sufficiently 
  overused to be rendered almost meaningless.
  One could do worse than hearing Chomsky on that  https://youtu.be/UWuT8d78yts
  Inter alia it is related to Chomsky being a linguist who's turned political