Re: Re:

you would have been proud my friend the sec ge= of the council of europe thjorborn jagland had to give as spe=ch on terrorism to the security counsel. Last night I presented your arguments, re hypocrisy, he was shocked but loved i=.

Glad it worked. Hope that the s=eech was of some interest.

He is the head of the human rights court in strasbou=g. / former prime minister of norway. .. He=would be happy to have a dinner with us. . subj. =C2 drones. solitary confinement , death penalty ( europe does not have one , so if killing terrorist= is to be under an act of war, argument , then they, as enemies ,hav= war rights. ). tribalism, mafia, syria, ukraine, saudi, egypt. =AO libya, . We have a great friendship. - I give him his financial ABC's class. he gives me my pragmatic =olitics lessons. fyi great similarity now as the old political=guard seem toreflect the patterns of the old long term=C2 investors, ( skills of . planning. executing . =A0 etc ) now confronted by media . and pressured to make quick decisions. ie behaving =AO like inexperienced short term traders. fyi I h=ve read a great number of language papers. many if not most, m=suse the concept of probability . making naive, erroneous uses of th= word , hence forming nonsensical conclusions. ( like the silly , life on =ther planets " calculation". probability needs repetition =nd symmetry, historical events do not have either ! )<=p>

Sounds like a most interesting person= And someone it would be very interesting to talk to. I presum= he spends time in NY. Hope we can work it out.

Would be interested in learning more =bout your critique of the use of probability in language work, mostly by computational cognitive scientists, as far as I know. I =80 ye written critiques of it too, but on different grounds: failure to =ccount for what they are trying to show, or even to understand the issue.=C2 There are, I think, some notable exceptions, like the recent work of Charles Yang, one of Bob Berwick's student=.

I think you might try to plan on late september, ta=ing my apt and spending a few days with valeria in the city, A= it is the openiing of the UN general assembly , as well as the Clinton global initiative New york is rife with people with a= least influence, if not new ideas. . I, we. can organize man= fun interactions. my house becomes a respite for the select f=w, to take off their ties , and talk openly. You would be welcome to join as many create or participate as you prefer. =AO yangs work deals with language as signals . his relia=ce on Zipf like distributions is a good example of naive probablities. .=C2 empirically zipf appears. but cannot be derived from any of his or anyones elses to date. so somewhat misleading to suggest the&=uot; probililty of word , x appearing, " it is the =istake of frequency vs probablity, and careless common usage.=u>

Valeria's not here right now,=so will have to check with her about late September. Really intrigui=g possibilities, and a delightful offer.

On Yang, I read his work quite differ=ntly. He does make use of word frequencies and probability distribut=ons, but as far as I am aware in pretty straightforward and innocuous ways. =A0 And he's quite sophisticated about these matters. Smart and int=resting guy. You might want to contact him directly.

I don't recall his using Zipf=E2 s "laws," but it wouldn't matter much. =A0 Mandelbrot showed back in the '50s that they were a statistical artifact, near meaningless. =AO I was, incidentally, surprised to see how he dealt with this result in =is autobiography. I think he called it his "Keplerian moment=" or something like that.

Noam

1.1 will wait on vale=ia. we can craft a fun few days

• 2, try this on but only if you get a moment , i know you =re busy

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it appear to me that ""language" can be defined as the=C2 biological organizing principle that creates a shape spa=e. "coherent sentences " are defined as those that f=t on the shape. The projections on the sensory motors, allows commun=cation. . There are an infinite digital number of sentences.that do fit on the shape , but=orders of magnitude more, that do not fit.- to attempt a naive=representation, imagine a hemisphere, ( symmetric), =AO any continuous line drawn on its surface , is a sentence. =C2 there are infinite numbers of lines that can be drawn. however, try=ng to connect two points, directly without traversing the hemishpere =AO is also infinitely possible but most solutions need to leav= the surface. The principle that organizes the shape is NOT an input device. one can map inputs onto the shap= but it is not THE shape , ex, a hemisphere bowl in 3 =pace, analogy, one can put marbles in the bowl and they will map a p=th to the bottom. but the shape of the bowl . determines how f=st they move, and in which direction, . the shape of the bowl is the language= there is a shape for vision as well. = it exists without input, certain paths are more probable etc.

3. I will contact Yang

Interesting image, but I don'= see what it tells us about language.

The problem looks to me like this, ro=ghly.

Take, say, the human visual system.=C2 There's a genetic component that determines that humans will=have a mammalian and not an insect visual system, and much else. Same wit= other subsystems of the organism — "organs," =80 modules." Language in particular. The technical name fo= this component, whatever it turns out to be, is UG. UG therefore de=ermines that certain systems are possible I-languages for humans, others are not. =1 presume that is what the "biological organizing principle =9D for language is. It's plainly not an input system, though=it determines possible input systems for human languages. I don =80 t see how we improve understanding by looking at it from this perspective.q=pan>

A minor technical problem, not serious, has to do with distinguishing digit=t infinity from continuity, like continuous lines on the surface of a hemi=phere.

I think you'll find Yang inte=esting.

Noam

it is my failing not =ours. the old math requires numbers . too li=iting. ( we can put a metric overlay on later in the chain) i=agine a shape in real space. it is readily apparent if a line either fits on the shape or not . how=do you know. ? you compare the line with the shape. =AO your visual system allows the mental shape to either map onto or not =AO onto the shape in a coherent manner. the shape is not an input =AO device ,it is an object . the organizing principle of the shape is la=guage, the shape is a collection of grammars. line= on the shape are either coherent or not. coherent ones are le=itimate sentences .

yang is flexible in his use of the term probability.=. for example he in a number of papers refers to zipf as a probabiltiy dis=ribution. i have checked a number of his papers after your last remark, I

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think it is a mistake. he m=ans that after empirical measurement . for ex word frequency,=C2 . if ten times out of 100 the corpus has the word x. =AO then he describes the probablility of finding the word as 10 perc=nt . this is not correct. it is only the probablity of finding the word in the=frequency list . but he is very accomplished at mathematical m=dels.

I follow up to the point where you wr=te "the organizing principle of the shape is language... =80 No doubt it can (partially) be described in language, but that's not what y=u mean.

Zipf's law is a rank-frequenc= distribution. And also meaningless, as Mandelbrot showed 60 years a=o. I hope Yang is clear about this. He surely knows.</=>

Noam

1. dont you have any =uestions about money, . ? ? finance. . =? I owe you

some knowledge .

2 .to say the shape c=n be" decribed " by language is redundant. =A0

the "shape"=is the metaphor for an n-dimentional object , it stands outside of t=me. as do grammars , but sentences do not, they require time. = the shape is somewhat like a fitness landscape? contrasted with communication which also requires = time dimension and biololgy that needs and uses energy . =AO I suggest the mammal Ug is a subcategory of all UG.s = and that as biology prefers redundancy . the other modules, ie vision =AO are small distortions of it.

3. during that UN period I often give a "=C2 money 101 to world leaders who have in many case. . little knorledge of a subject to which they give many speeches and policy directives=C2 , as they only have experinces such as that of a g=neral , a politicitain, in some instancees a disk jockey, before having to run their country. I would love to consider =ome of what you thought was " fair " . with regard. =C2 allocations. if you were running the show.

I wouldn’t dare to run the sh=w for money 101, but I’m sure I would learn a lot
by sitting in.</=pan>

It's true that grammars stand=outside of time, a fact that many linguists and psychologists don'= understand. There are suggestions of something like a "universal UG," =hough not couched in just these terms. Notably Michael Sherman =99s theory that a universal genome appeared at about the time of the Cambr=an explosion, and all forms of life are minor variants of it.

1. if you would design a fair tax system. =AO what goals would you suggest. I ve been researching how to start a new =inancial system for Zimbabwe. its now so broken it prese=ts a clean petrie dish, exchange rate of a billion billion dollars =AO equals one us dollar

2 berwick and yang. clever. =olution hunters, . not sure if question raisers ,=sherman better

3 . taking sherman work . and my conjectures =C2 ug 's would be genetically created =C2 modules of "sense makers. " structures t=at were able to separate sense from non-sense. I think there would be a ug for vision . smell etc and probably similar or=connected in some way.

in previous emails I have been referring to &q=ot;shapes" as a metaphor for those structures. shap=s do not have an input /output . a failing of the computational analogies.=C2 let me try this , a cell membrane , has a shape, it se=arates inner from outer. it is easy to see what is inside or o=t. the shape of the membrane is determined solely by a probability d=stribution. nothing more. The tons of works on spoken language =seem in vain to try to make of the mechanism from a minuscule sampling of=the combinatorics . silly. in the elephant and the blind man s=ory, they are not even close to touching the elephant they are fasc=nated by its droppings.

1 will do , by the way new =ousing starts were the highest in 7 years. the mortgage intere=t deduction cheerleaders , ( not me ). are thrilled.

2. i am willing to be convinced, as always=/u>

3. my admittedly naive point is that &qu=t;mechanism" ,I believe ,is the wrong concept. driven in error,=by the machine -computer analog since the early 1900s . instead =A0 think of probability , it is not a mechanism ,

1.=C2 Not a trivial matter. I'm not the=best person to ask. I'd suggest contacting people who =99ve really thought seriously about these issues, like Robert Pollin, a fi=e independent economist at U Mass Amherst

2.=C2 Sherman's speculation is an interesting exten=ion of recent discoveries about conservation, deep homologies, regulatory =ircuits, and other elements of what's sometimes called "the evo-devo revolution." It remains to be seen whether a=ything can be done with it. I think you underestimate the contributi=ns of Berwick and his students, including Yang.

3.=C2 The idea that there is a "ug" for vis=on, language, etc., seems to be essentially what Randy Gallistel calls =80 the norm in neuroscience," quoted in the paper on modularity =hat I sent you. And yes, they're certainly connected, at least a= the level of cells, and presumably well beyond. These are live and =ignificant research areas. These "central modules" d= not have input or output, but they are accessed by input systems and in some cases, like language, by output systems. That seems a fair p=cture of the rough cognitive architecture. I don't follow th= rest. It's true that work on human language uses as evidenc= what is available, namely performance. And much of the work unfortunately is fascinated by the droppings, just as in other fields. =AO But there is some work that seeks to discover the mechanisms, as discus=ed in the papers I sent you.

1.=C2 Not a trivial matter. I'm not the=best person to ask. I'd suggest contacting people who =99ve really thought seriously about these issues, like Robert Pollin, a fi=e independent economist at U Mass Amherst

2.=C2 Sherman's speculation is an interesting exten=ion of recent discoveries about conservation, deep homologies, regulatory =ircuits, and other elements of what's sometimes called "the evo-devo revolution." It remains to be seen whether a=ything can be done with it. I think you underestimate the contributi=ns of Berwick and his students, including Yang.

3.=C2 The idea that there is a "ug" for vis=on, language, etc., seems to be essentially what Randy Gallistel calls =80 the norm in neuroscience," quoted in the paper on modularity =hat I sent you. And yes, they're certainly connected, at least a= the level of cells, and presumably well beyond. These are live and =ignificant research areas. These "central modules" d= not have input or output, but they are accessed by input systems and in some cases, like language, by output systems. That seems a fair p=cture of the rough cognitive architecture. I don't follow th= rest. It's true that work on human language uses as evidenc= what is available, namely performance. And much of the work unfortunately is fascinated by the droppings, just as in other fields. =AO But there is some work that seeks to discover the mechanisms, as discus=ed in the papers I sent you.

1 you are a treat and=l very much appreciate your non finance views.): 2 ehud barak will b= with me for the weekend in ny. not sure where you are?

Marr, -try, probabilty, symmetry. ent=opy. it might look like computation but it is not. it mi=ht look like algorithm but it is not. the flip of a coin does not co=pute, have an algorithm or a mechanism. though it might look as if it does. =AO it is not an input system, there is not mechanism drivning the heads an= tails towards equal numbers. , there is not nature looking to see what th= previous results were and computing the next result. like your ug it is more of a miracle.

1.=C2 Not a trivial matter. I'm not the=best person to ask. I'd suggest contacting people who =99ve really thought seriously about these issues, like Robert Pollin, a fi=e independent economist at U Mass Amherst

2.=C2 Sherman's speculation is an interesting exten=ion of recent discoveries about conservation, deep homologies, regulatory =ircuits, and other elements of what's sometimes called "the evo-devo revolution." It remains to be seen whether a=ything can be done with it. I think you underestimate the contributi=ns of Berwick and his students, including Yang.

3.=C2 The idea that there is a "ug" for vis=on, language, etc., seems to be essentially what Randy Gallistel calls =80 the norm in neuroscience," quoted in the paper on modularity =hat I sent you. And yes, they're certainly connected, at least a= the level of cells, and presumably well beyond. These are live and =ignificant research areas. These "central modules" d= not have input or output, but they are accessed by input systems and in some cases, like language, by output systems. That seems a fair p=cture of the rough cognitive architecture. I don't follow th= rest. It's true that work on human language uses as evidenc= what is available, namely performance. And much of the work unfortunately is fascinated by the droppings, just as in other fields. =AO But there is some work that seeks to discover the mechanisms, as discus=ed in the papers I sent you.

1.do you have any specific questions for him? =C2 he thinks its not going in the right direction. =AO ie. bibi, not strong enough to make tough decisions. . =A0 ehud trusts hamas more than abbas. I know you dont like telephone= but we could set up a text exchange if you wanted to.

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2. more important

I use my coin flip analogy often. ie. . single cell=experiments, like looking through a microscope at my coin , measure =ts 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 f=rmly believe that language needs a theory, cognitive sci=nce needs a theory, your minions and intellectual offspring are like=C2 bio engineers --they will be able to mimic some of the behavior , =es it is amazing but not interesting. you have thought long an= hard and more importantly have seen what does NOT work. einsteins t=ought experiments led to truly remarkable results in physics. Im hoping that results like that can be achieved for biology=/p>

Forty years ago, Israel was one of th= 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 "s=pporters of Israel" are in fact supporters of its moral degenerati=n, international isolation, constant conflict and security problems, and m=ybe worse. So it has occurred. Israel even now has an official whose task is to deal with international isolation.=u>

Israelis like to attribute all this to anti-Semitism, which hasn't =hanged in the past 40 years. Or to appeal to "we have no neg=tiating partner," which won't wash. The problem is n=t Netanyahu. The policies and problems are much deeper. The cr=cial question is how long and how far will Israel proceed on the course to self-destruct=on.

A lot of work in AI, neural network t=eory, "Big Data and statistics," etc., is as you describe =E2 mimicking behavior (which I don't even find amazing or pa=ticularly interesting). But I think you underestimate the theoretical insights=and explanations, such as the few I mentioned in the papers I sent, the th=ories that yield explanations for such surprising phenomena as rigidity an= 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, rut explain fundamental properties of cognitive processes that enter into b=havior, of course indirectly. And there's a lot more like it.

i will get you a response on israel. / =C2 2. what does amaze you? interest you? . 3/ w= could put together some chomsky questions for posterity, like=hillberts , fermats etc. I am willing to fund a prize for solu=ions, Anonymously if you prefer. .. I need to keep up your fun quot=ent.