[Intermernet]

Hang on, they mostly agree with each other. I've spoken to Rob Pike a few times and I never heard him call out Perlis as being wrong. On this particular point, Perlis and Pike are both extending an existing idea put forward by Fred Brooks.

[mosura]

Perlis absolutely is not saying the same thing, and as the commenter notes the functional community interpret it in a particularly extreme way.

I would guess Pike is simply wise enough not to get involved in such arguments.