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It's weird to think that Noam Chomsky, who is so well known for his politics, and is reasonably well known for his contributions to linguistics, is also a signi

It's weird to think that Noam Chomsky, who is so well known for his politics, and is reasonably well known for his contributions to linguistics, is also a significant contributor to automata theory & programming language design, despite having a very minimal direct involvement in CS. Imagine strongly influencing an entire field and not really working in that field. What an intellectual giant.

joe_the_user 7y ago
"Reasonably well-know" for linguistic theories. Sure, if "most cited academic author of the 20th century" is reasonable [1]. Also, there's a deep connection between automata and abstract languages - an abstract language can be described by the class of automaton that can accept it and vice-versa, at least in the case of finite automaton, pushdown automaton and Turing machines go, you have regular, context-free and context-sensitive language (known as ... "the Chomsky Hierarchy"). [1] http://news.mit.edu/1992/citation-0415 http://news.mit.edu/1992/citation-0415
- sixstringtheory 7y ago
  For anyone who'd want to know more, this is the textbook I used in a CS theory class where I first learned about the Chomsky connection: Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser (https://www.amazon.com/dp/113318779X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb https://www.amazon.com/dp/113318779X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb). (Edit: added the title and author name in my post)
  - ricklamers 7y ago
    Sipser is a gem for anyone interested in formal languages. Also check out Harry Porter on YouTube for his great explanations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm_vMIwUAidnQz https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm...
- lordleft 7y ago
  Hi - so I totally agree with you, he's a titan of linguistics. I meant well known beyond the academy; I'd wager he's more of a household name because of his politics than his contributions to linguistics.
  - hyperpallium 7y ago
    I heard about his all human languages look the same to a Martian antropologist at primary school.
spamizbad 7y ago
He's probably spent the least amount of time dealing with politics but it's what grabs him the most attention. This also causes lots of people to dislike him for no good reason; there was a VC on twitter recently who basically said his work on linguistics and politics have been debunked and then proceeded block a few engineers who (rightly) pointed out his considerable contributions to PLT.
- sprafa 7y ago
  His memory is remarkable. Even when he talks about politics he seems to know and remember more than virtually anyone else I’ve ever seen.
- yesenadam 7y ago
  >He's probably spent the least amount of time dealing with politics I'm not sure about that--he's written a lot of political books about particular countries/wars, each of them lengthy and painstakingly researched and footnoted--they alone would have been an ample life's work for most people. (I mean the earlier books, not the recent ones mostly based on interviews/conversations.) Then there's all the speeches, conversations, interviews etc on political topics.
- thundergolfer 7y ago
  > This also causes lots of people to dislike him for no good reason They're certainly not a "good" reason to dislike him, but the reasons are very real and significant. In the case of the VC, Chomsky spreads ideas that would destroy their economic power and give it the the people. People with millions of dollars in wealth are terrified of anarcho-syndicalists like Chomsky.
obese_by_nature 7y ago
Noam Chomsky - Artificial intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAP0xk-c4mk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAP0xk-c4mk
irrational 7y ago
>reasonably well known for his contributions to linguistics It's been 20 years since I finished my BS in Linguistics, but back then his name came up in just about every meeting of every class. We spent a lot of time discussing/arguing about whether he was right or wrong. I had one professor who was convinced that Chomsky was wrong, but he hired a TA who was a big fan of Chomsky so that we could get 2 different perspectives.
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  > but he hired a TA who was a big fan of Chomsky so that we could get 2 different perspectives. That's... rare, and beautiful. I admire being open-minded like this. I guess you felt in a similar way?

joe_the_user 7y ago

"Reasonably well-know" for linguistic theories. Sure, if "most cited academic author of the 20th century" is reasonable [1]. Also, there's a deep connection between automata and abstract languages - an abstract language can be described by the class of automaton that can accept it and vice-versa, at least in the case of finite automaton, pushdown automaton and Turing machines go, you have regular, context-free and context-sensitive language (known as ... "the Chomsky Hierarchy"). [1] http://news.mit.edu/1992/citation-0415 http://news.mit.edu/1992/citation-0415

sixstringtheory 7y ago
For anyone who'd want to know more, this is the textbook I used in a CS theory class where I first learned about the Chomsky connection: Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser (https://www.amazon.com/dp/113318779X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb https://www.amazon.com/dp/113318779X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb). (Edit: added the title and author name in my post)
- ricklamers 7y ago
  Sipser is a gem for anyone interested in formal languages. Also check out Harry Porter on YouTube for his great explanations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm_vMIwUAidnQz https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm...
lordleft 7y ago
Hi - so I totally agree with you, he's a titan of linguistics. I meant well known beyond the academy; I'd wager he's more of a household name because of his politics than his contributions to linguistics.
- hyperpallium 7y ago
  I heard about his all human languages look the same to a Martian antropologist at primary school.

spamizbad 7y ago

He's probably spent the least amount of time dealing with politics but it's what grabs him the most attention. This also causes lots of people to dislike him for no good reason; there was a VC on twitter recently who basically said his work on linguistics and politics have been debunked and then proceeded block a few engineers who (rightly) pointed out his considerable contributions to PLT.

sprafa 7y ago
His memory is remarkable. Even when he talks about politics he seems to know and remember more than virtually anyone else I’ve ever seen.
yesenadam 7y ago
>He's probably spent the least amount of time dealing with politics I'm not sure about that--he's written a lot of political books about particular countries/wars, each of them lengthy and painstakingly researched and footnoted--they alone would have been an ample life's work for most people. (I mean the earlier books, not the recent ones mostly based on interviews/conversations.) Then there's all the speeches, conversations, interviews etc on political topics.
thundergolfer 7y ago
> This also causes lots of people to dislike him for no good reason They're certainly not a "good" reason to dislike him, but the reasons are very real and significant. In the case of the VC, Chomsky spreads ideas that would destroy their economic power and give it the the people. People with millions of dollars in wealth are terrified of anarcho-syndicalists like Chomsky.

obese_by_nature 7y ago

Noam Chomsky - Artificial intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAP0xk-c4mk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAP0xk-c4mk

irrational 7y ago

>reasonably well known for his contributions to linguistics It's been 20 years since I finished my BS in Linguistics, but back then his name came up in just about every meeting of every class. We spent a lot of time discussing/arguing about whether he was right or wrong. I had one professor who was convinced that Chomsky was wrong, but he hired a TA who was a big fan of Chomsky so that we could get 2 different perspectives.

simonebrunozzi 7y ago
> but he hired a TA who was a big fan of Chomsky so that we could get 2 different perspectives. That's... rare, and beautiful. I admire being open-minded like this. I guess you felt in a similar way?