@laurahelmuth As much as I'm an admirer of much that Bertrand Russell had to say -- especially relating to theology -- I have always been dubious of his claimed language<->thought connection. So this is fine reading. Thanks.

@laurahelmuth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eTSL2kopP4

@laurahelmuth

If our current AI models are based on large language models and thought and language are not intimately intertwined then is current AI just talk and no substance?

@laurahelmuth Jerry Fodor shakes his fist in his grave!

@laurahelmuth this isn't news to Kant or Nietzsche but I'm always pleased when modern neuroscience starts figuring out this stuff, or at least tries.

While the research was good to read I found her notion that LLM were a useful model to study language and cognition somewhat puzzling. And her odd reference to Chomsky, who always held grammar has to have an innate base due to how rapidly young flexible brains acquire language?

Analytic philosophy (which is neither) has done immense damage.

@laurahelmuth It's strange such an idea persist, as anyone having experienced a temporary aphasia could testify being able to do complexe tasks and make decisions.

(it was a very strange experience, like if everything was blurred)

@laurahelmuth I am pretty sure when I am doing math or some software design there is no spoken language just a sort of mashing different mental structures together. In math I find all the different names for things to be a confusing replacement for what they really are.

@laurahelmuth The first time I learned that some people don’t have an inner dialogue, I was completely stupefied. I didn’t think that was possible. Live to learn …