From: Noam Chomsky < Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 9:51 PM To: Jeffrey E. Subject: RE: Re: The third problem can be posed — though few will understand it. The first two can be posed but there is no known way to address them — the first for reasons that Dick Lewontin explained in his important paper on evolution of cognition (which those who write about the topic refuse to read), the second because it reaches to issues that are total mysteries even in much simpler domains — perhaps, though many don't to contemplate the fact, because of limits of human cognitive capacity. Puppet and puppeteer, again. There are lots of narrower problems that can be posed, but there are issues of general import. What was very special, maybe unique, about Hilbert in 1900 was the advances in the field had reached the point so that questions had that miraculous combination of being (1) potentially within reach and (2) of very great import for the field of mathematics. That's hard to achieve. Will think more about it — repeating the Hebrew words to myself. Did you learn them as a kid in Hebrew school? Noam From: jeffrey E. [mailto:[email protected] Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 5:09 PM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: Re: Re: I understand the limitations of questions too far from the boundary of contemporary thought but as you speak hebrew. i will paraphrase the reason you should consider posing the questions now. -- If not now. when? On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 3:59 PM, Noam Chomsky wrote: The main questions that interest me are about origin of the language faculty, which, I think, created modern humans, the most unusual, nutty, and remarkable of all biological phenomena. There are two problems that seem beyond reach: the origin of elementary human concepts, which appear to be radically different from anything in the animal world; and the "creative aspect of language use," the phenomenon that astonished Galileo, Descartes, and other leading figures since. The third problem has to do with what we've been calling "the Basic Property" of language: a EFTA_R1_01323488 EFTA02348953

recursive procedure that generates an infinite array of hierarchically structured expressions interpreted at the interfaces, primarily the conceptual-intentional interface, providing a "language of thought." The most fundamental question here is to what extent the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT) holds, that is, to what extent has nature produced a perfect solution to the Basic Property, which underlies our creative capacities in language (and probably much else). That problem can be addressed, and has been, I think with some success. Very generous proposal. Made good sense for Hilbert in 1900, given the advances of the past century. These enabled him to formulate problems of deep mathematical significance in a form that was not too far from contemporary understanding. But my feeling is that the cognitive sciences is nowhere near that stage. It's possible to pose many narrower problems, and that's in fact what people work on from grad school on to the limits of research. But understanding, I think, has probably not reached the stage where one can sensibly do what Hilbert did. Others incidentally disagree — as is usually the case. From: Jeffrey E. [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 2:40 PM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: Re: Re: i will get you a response on israel. / 2. what does amaze you? interest you? . 3/ we could put together some chomsky questions for posterity, like hillberts , fermats etc. I am willing to fund a prize for solutions, Anonymously if you prefer... I need to keep up your fun quotient. On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 2:23 PM, Noam Chomsky wrote: Forty years ago, Israel was one of the most admired countries in the world. Now it is most disliked. Forty years ago it was pretty clear, as I wrote at the time (and I was far from alone), that those who call themselves "supporters of Israel" are in fact supporters of its moral degeneration, international isolation, constant conflict and security problems, and maybe worse. So it has occurred. Israel even now has an official whose task is to deal with international isolation. 2 EFTA_R1_01323489 EFTA02348954

Israelis like to attribute all this to anti-Semitism, which hasn't changed in the past 40 years. Or to appeal to "we have no negotiating partner," which won't wash. The problem is not Netanyahu. The policies and problems are much deeper. The crucial question is how long and how far will Israel proceed on the course to self-destruction. A lot of work in Al, neural network theory, "Big Data and statistics," etc., is as you describe — mimicking behavior (which I don't even find amazing or particularly interesting). But I think you underestimate the theoretical insights and explanations, such as the few I mentioned in the papers I sent, the theories that yield explanations for such surprising phenomena as rigidity and structure-dependence, with their far-reaching consequences. Those I think are the kinds of results that are rarely found outside the hard sciences. They don't mimic behavior, but explain fundamental properties of cognitive processes that enter into behavior, of course indirectly. And there's a lot more like it. From: Jeffrey E. [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ] Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:43 AM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: Re: Re: 1.do you have any specific questions for him? he thinks its not going in the right direction. ie. bibi, not strong enough to make tough decisions. . ehud trusts hamas more than abbas. I know you dont like telephones but we could set up a text exchange if you wanted to. 2. more important I use my coin flip analogy often. ie. . single cell experiments, like looking through a microscope at my coin , measure its content it moment, its shape , all trying to figure out why the result after a long while is always the same -equal number of tails and heads. a consistent result. no algorithm , no computation . Why i am pushing you on this, is that i firmly believe that language needs a theory, cognitive science needs a theory, your minions and intellectual offspring are like bio engineers --they will be able to mimic some of the behavior, yes it is amazing but not interesting, you have thought long and hard and more importantly have seen what does NOT work. einsteins thought experiments led to truly remarkable results in physics. Im hoping that results like that can be achieved for biology On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 11:05 PM, Noam Chomsky > wrote: Have a good weekend. I wonder what he thinks about where the state is heading now. We'll probably be at the Cape, in Wellfleet, if we can make it. 3 EFTA_R1_01323490 EFTA02348955