Dr. Richard Stallman to give free talk and QA at Georgia Tech Jan. 23rd 2-5pm

82 pointsposted 2 months ago
by rockenman1234
(old.reddit.com)

14 Comments

schmuckonwheels

2 months ago

I believe Stallman's doctorate is honorary. Courtesy of Wikipedia:

>With regard to the use of this honorific, the policies of institutions of higher education generally ask that recipients "refrain from adopting the misleading title" and that a recipient of an honorary doctorate should restrict the use of the title "Dr" before their name to any engagement with the institution of higher education in question and not within the broader community.

This, however, does not overshadow his contribution to computing and I must say that as of 2025, he has been right about most things (with the possible exception of secure boot).

rockenman1234

2 months ago

Dr. Stallman has received 15 honorary doctorates (see: https://www.stallman.org/articles/dr-stallman.html). After a certain point, the consistency of such recognition speaks for itself. TBH after like 5 I would start seeing the point of calling myself 'doctor'. Georgia Tech also awards honorary doctorates through the statewide university system, and as such, there is no institutional policy dictating how individuals are to address one another.

I appreciate the concern and agree that RMS has been extraordinarily influential in the field of computing. We will be posting videos of the event afterward, so if you’re interested in hearing what he has to say in 2025, please keep an eye out!

tomnipotent

2 months ago

Except honorary doctorates are awards, not academic qualifications. Influence or not he didn't do the work at those institutions, defending a dissertation, that would earn him the title, regardless of his contributions. That many of these awards are from non-US universities doesn't change that they're a form of marketing - these awards were not given out of the goodness of someones heart, but because these businesses wanted something out of the relationship by associating with his name.

throwaway81523

2 months ago

I'm ok with the honorary Dr thing but the article says he completed graduate studies. He actually quit grad school (MIT theoretical physics) for personal reasons and focused on software after that.

Taking about physics still always seemed to make him happy. I was once tempted to invite him to a study session for a QM class I was taking. He helped me with a problem set and his explanations were WAY clearer than the professor's or TA's. I think his understanding of the subject was simply better than theirs.

GCC was surely worth a non-honorary CS PhD all by itself. I can say that because the guy who wrote LLVM got one for doing basically the same thing 30 years later.

cafard

2 months ago

Donald Knuth wrote of Robert Floyd that

  (Bob used to say that he was planning to get a PhD by the “green stamp method,” namely by saving envelopes addressed to him as “Dr. Floyd.” After collecting 500 such letters, he mused, a university somewhere in Arizona would probably grant him a degree.)
See https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1299661

I suppose that Stallman must have received enough letters.

rockenman1234

2 months ago

The event is free and open to the public. This will be Dr. Stallman’s first talk at a U.S. college since his cancer diagnosis and successful recovery in 2019. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that we will be accepting cash-only donations for our fundraiser at the event.

If you’ll be in Atlanta that week - or simply want the opportunity to see and meet Dr. Stallman - this is a rare chance you won’t want to miss!

gnerd00

2 months ago

The first and only time I met Richard Stallman was at a small private talk in Palo Alto at MacAurthur Park. About 20 people at most I would say. His rigor and attentiveness to detail stood out brightly, even amongst a room full of PhDs and others. I was startled by the talk at the time and I have to say that those ideas have never left me since then. The content of his careful polemic have only grown in weight and relevancy today, whatever your own views are.

It is an honor and achievement of a society that Richard Stallman may speak and say what he chooses to say, in 2025.

rockenman1234

2 months ago

Thank you! I agree - it’s an honor to host RMS for a talk! We will be posting video recordings of the event online afterward, so please keep an eye out if you’re interested in hearing what he has to say in 2025.

> It is an honor and achievement of a society that Richard Stallman may speak and say what he chooses to say, in 2025.

Georgia Tech, as a public institution, takes the First Amendment very seriously (see: https://provost.gatech.edu/academic-freedom-and-freedom-expr...). Our student organization has worked hard with the College of Computing and other members of the administration to ensure that all of RMS's requests have been met.

designerbenny

2 months ago

Is that talk free as in beer or free as in speech?

rockenman1234

2 months ago

Both! ;-)

RMS is free to speak his mind, everyone else is free to ask him anything so long as it’s during our Q&A session. We will not be charging any fees for attending the event, space is first come first served.