Noam Chomsky: The Singularity is Science Fiction!

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by Jay, 11 years ago
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http://www.singularityweblog.com/noam-chomsky-the-singularity-is-science-fiction/ Dr. Noam Chomsky is a famed linguist, political activist, prolific author and recognized public speaker, who has spent the last 60 years living a double life -- one as a political activist and another as a linguist. His activism allegedly made him the US government's public enemy number one. As a linguist he is often credited for dethroning behaviorism and becoming the "father of modern linguistics" (and/or cognitive science). Put together his accomplishments are the reasons why he is often listed as one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century. And so I was very much looking forward to interviewing him on Singularity 1 on 1. Unfortunately our time together was delayed, then rushed and a bit shorter than anticipated. So I was pretty nervous throughout and messed up some of my questions and timing. Never-the-less, I believe that we still had a worthy conversation with Dr. Chomsky and I appreciate the generous though limited time that he was able to grant me. During our 28 minute conversation with Noam Chomsky we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the balance between his academic and his political life; artificial intelligence and reverse engineering the human brain; why in his view both Deep Blue and Watson are little more than PR; the slow but substantial progress of our civilization; the technological singularity...