Into The Impossible

Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential and highly cited scholars of our time. He is a pioneer in the fields of linguistics and cognitive science. He has deep thoughts about communicating with aliens, meditation, Elon Musk, and free speech. Chomsky is a prolific author and known political activist. We avoided politics, as is the custom for my interviews. Our conversation also covers the Turing Test, neural nets, and artificial intelligence, including why he expects Elon Musk’s Neuralink project to fail. Key Takeaways:  Introduction (00:00) Does Noam Chomsky believe in extraterrestrial life & could we communicate with E.T.? (09:01) Busting (or confirming) linguistic myths with the master (23:57) “There is no scientific method. It’s just being intelligent.” (39:19) Artificial intelligence applications in cognitive science (58:13) Chomsky University would encourage discovery (1:09:46) Thoughts on the negative reaction to the Harper’s Magazine article (1:21:52) What object or knowledge would Chomsk