Noam Chomsky: Buddhism, ChatGPT, and the Hard Problem of Mind

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Curt Jaimungal

Physics, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2023

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Noam Chomsky’s ideas are examined alongside Buddhism, AI, and the mind‑body problem, questioning whether language rules and consciousness can be reduced to algorithms. The conversation also tackles the impact of ChatGPT, modern language models, and philosophical implications for science and morality.- 00:00:00 - Introduction- 00:02:50 - AI world government concept- 00:06:23 - Introspection limits and power- 00:09:02 - Buddhism, Taoism, language, suffering- 00:09:54 - Human survival question- 00:10:44 - Progress on language rule study- 00:13:02 - Recursive merge- 00:26:08 - Dolphin and sperm whale language complexity- 00:29:32 - Philosophy of science- 00:32:54 - Symbol grounding and moral philosophy- 00:41:20 - Science analogy quote- 00:42:36 - Mind‑body problem critique- 00:51:21 - Hossenfelder on ChatGPT understanding language- 00:55:00 - Language models refute Chomsky- 00:58:56 - Bare phrase structure theory- 01:01:09 - Intentionality and Chinese Room- 01:05:45 - Generative grammar and CTMU- 01:07:52 - Consciousness creating reality?- 01:11:59 - Universal Grammar vs Bayesian modeling- 01:13:28 - AGI scares Chomsky- 01:14:56 - Linguistic successors of Chomsky- 01:16:11 - Human language vs arithmetic capacity- 01:20:23 - Certainty, nihilismSPONSORS:- Patreon: early access to ad‑free audio episodes! https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal- Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802- Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything- TOE Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerchRESOURCES:- YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DQuiso493ro- Paper "refuting" Chomsky by Piantadosi: https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/007180- Sabine Hossenfelder video on ChatGPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5zGh2fui0- Every Noam Chomsky on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ7ikzmc6zlORiRfcaQe8ZdxKxF-e2BCY- Terrence Deacon on TOE (Symbol Grounding Problem): https://youtu.be/PqZp7MlRC5g Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal features long-form, technically detailed interviews with leading researchers in physics, mathematics, consciousness, and philosophy, exploring topics at the level of active research. For academics, graduate students, and anyone seeking depth beyond popular science. SPONSOR: I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE FOLLOW: Substack | Spotify | YouTube | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	One question that I would like to see answered is whether there is any possibility for the human species to survive.
0:08.0	Right now, the answer is no.
0:10.0	It's an honor to introduce Professor Chomsky, one of the most influential figures in linguistics and the philosophy of language.
0:19.0	By the way, I say introduce, but
0:22.0	Chomsky has graced the theories of everything channel eight times before. This marks his ninth
0:27.5	appearance. This channel may as well be called theories of gnome. Some of the questions explore
0:32.1	today are as follows. How does introspection influence our understanding of ourselves and our use of language?
0:38.3	So the answer seems self-evident, though introspection has its own limitations.
0:42.3	How far can speech or language take us in our quest for self-knowledge?
0:46.3	What's the role of language in perception?
0:49.3	And can we even fully trust introspective insights?
0:52.3	What are the implications that language models like
0:55.0	GPT have for our understanding of language acquisition and comprehension? One may think that language
1:00.3	models that model human-like responses imply understanding, is that clear? Does this perceived
1:06.4	understanding reside in the syntactic level and the semantic level? Do these models contribute to our
1:12.4	knowledge of language, of human language, our language? Or do they fall short because of inherent
1:17.7	limitations? What would those be? Can you ground moral philosophy? What does that mean to even ground it?
1:23.4	And how does that connect with symbol grounding? By the way, there's something called the symbol
1:27.2	grounding problem. This is talked about's something called the symbol grounding problem.
1:28.7	This is talked about in the Terence Deakin episode.
1:31.3	I consider the symbol grounding problem to be the hard problem of meaning.
1:35.1	My name is Kurtzai Mungle, and this is a channel called Theories of Everything,
	...

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