More like HR said, “Well, there is option A where you leave and are free to do what you wish. And then there is option B (points at bag of cash) where you pretend none of this ever happened…”
I assume Geoffrey Hinton has enough bags of cash for his lifetime and a few more on top of that. IDK why someone so well compensated and so well recognized would agree to limit themselves in exchange for a, relatively speaking, tiny bit more cash. That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense.
"It doesn't matter if you take the bags of cash or not, we will do our best to destroy your life if you mess with us after you are gone. The bags of cash are a formality, but you might as well accept them because we have the power to crush you either way"
Large corporations like Google have a lot of resources and connections to really mess up a single persons life if they really want to, with expensive legal action and PR campaigns.
Yeah, they might cause their reputation some damage by going after the wrong person, but let's be real here.. the worst outcome for Google would likely be miles ahead of the worst outcome for Hinton.
Edit: Note that I'm not actually saying that I think Google and Hinton have this level of adversarial relationship.
I'm just saying that big companies may come after you for speaking out against them regardless of if you've accepted hush money or not.
Given that, it's usually worth
being tactful when talking about former employers regardless of any payouts you may have accepted or agreements you may have signed.