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This is slightly off topic and might be taken as rude, but it would be interesting to revoice Chomsky’s lectures with his voice from his younger years. Seems do

This is slightly off topic and might be taken as rude, but it would be interesting to revoice Chomsky’s lectures with his voice from his younger years. Seems doable using tools today, no? His pacing and voice made him a bit harder to follow in the recent decade for me. This seems generally useful for other lectures with accents, bad pacing, etc. (going 1.5x is not the right solution). I’m not sure if lecturers would be happy with losing their voice’s ‘brand’ though.

stjohnswarts 6y ago
1.25x is perfectly okay IMO. I think it helps to push yourself a little to understand that age changes things but it doesn't make them inferior and it's good to be reminded of such things and learn to tolerate it if it perturbs you. We all get older.
alexashka 6y ago
I've listened to some of his lectures over the years but the most I've ever gotten from him, was from a single book that compiled and edited his lectures into a QnA format, sorted by topic. The book's called 'understanding power'. I got my copy from a used book store for a few bucks. Great stuff full of interesting historical bits I had no idea about. It also helped clarify his philosophical stance, which is simply that people need to organize in order to affect change. He's decided that his part is providing research and it is up to others to use it to do their part. Chomsky to me, would've been a giant historical figure, if he had found a Steve Jobs to represent his work, the same way Steve Wozniak did. Instead, Chomsky went at it alone, making some of the most juicy and interesting material feel stale, simply because he has no ability to present it in a compelling manner.
- dgellow 6y ago
  In case you’re not aware, Chomsky IS a giant historical figure. He’s a founder of modern linguistics and cognitive science, a renowned analytical philosopher, and a major political activist of the 20th American landscape. His academic and political work is massive.
  - leephillips 6y ago
    This is the first time I've heard him described as a renowned (or any kind of) analytic philosopher. And I’m not sure he’s contributed anything that’s taken seriously by mainstream cognitive science. Also: “It’s”?
    - tsimionescu 6y ago
      > And I’m not sure he’s contributed anything that’s taken seriously by mainstream cognitive science. If nothing else, he single-handedly tore down behaviorism as a serious theory of the mind, which at one point was status quo and gaining traction. Chomsky used his observations from the study of language to show that behaviorism simply can't explain most of how we acquire language. So even if his own theories of mind had not gained traction (I don't know enough about this to comment), he definitely had a major contribution to cognitive science.
    - dgellow 6y ago
      Then you might want to look deeper into his work. Regarding cognitive science, check the first entry from this list: http://web.mnstate.edu/schwartz/cogsci100.htm http://web.mnstate.edu/schwartz/cogsci100.htm. (If the link to his book is dead, you can check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_Structures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_Structures directly if you prefer). > Also: “It’s”? Autocorrect typo, I fixed it.
    - yesenadam 6y ago
      Maybe they read his wikipedia page, the third sentence of which is: "Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science." But that's just wikipedia, you say, so I looked at the (very "analytic philosophy") article on Philosophy of Linguistics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Chomsky is mentioned by name 78 times. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/ A quick glance at just the titles of the 94 other articles on there mentioning Chomsky gives an idea of the range of his ideas/writing/influence: https://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=noam+chomsky https://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=noam+cho...
Slow_Hand 6y ago
Haha yeah. Funny story about his pacing: I last saw him speak at an event in Cambridge back in 2009 when he was giving an interview on American foreign policy to a church of 500+ people. At one point he spoke a sentence to the effect of "...it was retarded by their efforts to disrupt..." However, as a speaker, he doesn't fill his pauses with "ummm" or "uhhh". Rather, he stops cold in the middle of a sentence until he has the right word and then proceeds again. So the sentence instead came out as "It was retarded ... (pause) ...by their efforts to disrupt the..." I was already nodding off a bit, so imagine my surprise at someone of Noam's seriousness seemingly resorting to calling something "retarded" like an immature teen. The confusion of it blindsided me and had me dumbfounded for what felt like a small eternity before he completed the sentence and I figured out what had just happened. It was a weird feeling. Like the momentary falling sensation when you're expecting one last stair step that isn't there. I'm confident that it was unintentional, but wittingly or not, it was probably the single funniest thing I ever heard come out of his mouth.
- Mizza 6y ago
  I was at this event, and because I was friends with the organizers, I got to go to reception afterwords. Noam was far more interested in the shrimp buffet than he was in talking to me, but it was very funny to watch Noam Chomsky suffer through my friend's dad describing to him the plot of Oliver Stone's 'JFK'.
dgellow 6y ago
People remove accents from recording? That feels very insulting to be honest, I would hate for people to do this to me. Take me (and my strong accent and weird pacing) as I am or move on.
- jhanschoo 6y ago
  A person who is not used to a strong accent finds it difficult to understand similar to how a person not used to a dialect can find it difficult to understand the local speech. I don't think it should be considered insulting in the same way you may expect a translator.
  - dgellow 6y ago
    You can use subtitles, or you do what every foreigner has to do: you adapt and learn to deal with different accents. I would personally find it really insulting to have someone translating my English because of my pace or my swiss-french accent.
    - jhanschoo 6y ago
      > You can use subtitles, or you do what every foreigner has to do: you adapt and learn to deal with different accents. I realize that my position is extreme against current practice, but I do think that it's logical for some content. It's possible that automatic accent standardization is more feasible for computers than automatic transcription of accented speech. In that case, the former might be a cheaper substitute for people who cannot understand your accent. As for why you would want to cater to people who cannot understand your accent, perhaps weak ESL speakers with little exposure and little opportunity for exposure are part of the audience of your content. As for another reason for changing accents that I did not previously supply: some people may have accents that place them, but want that privacy maintained in the recording.
      - dgellow 6y ago
        I think I get your point, and to be honest reading the thread again now I cannot say exactly why I felt so strong about it, but that was my reaction at the moment. It feels patronizing and wrong to assume that en_US language and accent (or en_GB, or whatever) should be assumed to be _the actual standard_, and something too foreign should be adapted without the involvement of the actual speaker.

stjohnswarts 6y ago

1.25x is perfectly okay IMO. I think it helps to push yourself a little to understand that age changes things but it doesn't make them inferior and it's good to be reminded of such things and learn to tolerate it if it perturbs you. We all get older.

alexashka 6y ago

I've listened to some of his lectures over the years but the most I've ever gotten from him, was from a single book that compiled and edited his lectures into a QnA format, sorted by topic. The book's called 'understanding power'. I got my copy from a used book store for a few bucks. Great stuff full of interesting historical bits I had no idea about. It also helped clarify his philosophical stance, which is simply that people need to organize in order to affect change. He's decided that his part is providing research and it is up to others to use it to do their part. Chomsky to me, would've been a giant historical figure, if he had found a Steve Jobs to represent his work, the same way Steve Wozniak did. Instead, Chomsky went at it alone, making some of the most juicy and interesting material feel stale, simply because he has no ability to present it in a compelling manner.

dgellow 6y ago
In case you’re not aware, Chomsky IS a giant historical figure. He’s a founder of modern linguistics and cognitive science, a renowned analytical philosopher, and a major political activist of the 20th American landscape. His academic and political work is massive.
- leephillips 6y ago
  This is the first time I've heard him described as a renowned (or any kind of) analytic philosopher. And I’m not sure he’s contributed anything that’s taken seriously by mainstream cognitive science. Also: “It’s”?
  - tsimionescu 6y ago
    > And I’m not sure he’s contributed anything that’s taken seriously by mainstream cognitive science. If nothing else, he single-handedly tore down behaviorism as a serious theory of the mind, which at one point was status quo and gaining traction. Chomsky used his observations from the study of language to show that behaviorism simply can't explain most of how we acquire language. So even if his own theories of mind had not gained traction (I don't know enough about this to comment), he definitely had a major contribution to cognitive science.
  - dgellow 6y ago
    Then you might want to look deeper into his work. Regarding cognitive science, check the first entry from this list: http://web.mnstate.edu/schwartz/cogsci100.htm http://web.mnstate.edu/schwartz/cogsci100.htm. (If the link to his book is dead, you can check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_Structures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_Structures directly if you prefer). > Also: “It’s”? Autocorrect typo, I fixed it.
  - yesenadam 6y ago
    Maybe they read his wikipedia page, the third sentence of which is: "Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science." But that's just wikipedia, you say, so I looked at the (very "analytic philosophy") article on Philosophy of Linguistics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Chomsky is mentioned by name 78 times. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/ A quick glance at just the titles of the 94 other articles on there mentioning Chomsky gives an idea of the range of his ideas/writing/influence: https://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=noam+chomsky https://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=noam+cho...

Slow_Hand 6y ago

Haha yeah. Funny story about his pacing: I last saw him speak at an event in Cambridge back in 2009 when he was giving an interview on American foreign policy to a church of 500+ people. At one point he spoke a sentence to the effect of "...it was retarded by their efforts to disrupt..." However, as a speaker, he doesn't fill his pauses with "ummm" or "uhhh". Rather, he stops cold in the middle of a sentence until he has the right word and then proceeds again. So the sentence instead came out as "It was retarded ... (pause) ...by their efforts to disrupt the..." I was already nodding off a bit, so imagine my surprise at someone of Noam's seriousness seemingly resorting to calling something "retarded" like an immature teen. The confusion of it blindsided me and had me dumbfounded for what felt like a small eternity before he completed the sentence and I figured out what had just happened. It was a weird feeling. Like the momentary falling sensation when you're expecting one last stair step that isn't there. I'm confident that it was unintentional, but wittingly or not, it was probably the single funniest thing I ever heard come out of his mouth.

Mizza 6y ago
I was at this event, and because I was friends with the organizers, I got to go to reception afterwords. Noam was far more interested in the shrimp buffet than he was in talking to me, but it was very funny to watch Noam Chomsky suffer through my friend's dad describing to him the plot of Oliver Stone's 'JFK'.

dgellow 6y ago

People remove accents from recording? That feels very insulting to be honest, I would hate for people to do this to me. Take me (and my strong accent and weird pacing) as I am or move on.

jhanschoo 6y ago
A person who is not used to a strong accent finds it difficult to understand similar to how a person not used to a dialect can find it difficult to understand the local speech. I don't think it should be considered insulting in the same way you may expect a translator.
- dgellow 6y ago
  You can use subtitles, or you do what every foreigner has to do: you adapt and learn to deal with different accents. I would personally find it really insulting to have someone translating my English because of my pace or my swiss-french accent.
  - jhanschoo 6y ago
    > You can use subtitles, or you do what every foreigner has to do: you adapt and learn to deal with different accents. I realize that my position is extreme against current practice, but I do think that it's logical for some content. It's possible that automatic accent standardization is more feasible for computers than automatic transcription of accented speech. In that case, the former might be a cheaper substitute for people who cannot understand your accent. As for why you would want to cater to people who cannot understand your accent, perhaps weak ESL speakers with little exposure and little opportunity for exposure are part of the audience of your content. As for another reason for changing accents that I did not previously supply: some people may have accents that place them, but want that privacy maintained in the recording.
    - dgellow 6y ago
      I think I get your point, and to be honest reading the thread again now I cannot say exactly why I felt so strong about it, but that was my reaction at the moment. It feels patronizing and wrong to assume that en_US language and accent (or en_GB, or whatever) should be assumed to be _the actual standard_, and something too foreign should be adapted without the involvement of the actual speaker.