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Since most babies tend to follow the steps of development according to a timeline (i.e. a, then b, then c, and never out of order), and typically on time, isn't
by lawpoop 11y ago
Since most babies tend to follow the steps of development according to a timeline (i.e. a, then b, then c, and never out of order), and typically on time, isn't this rather evidence that such neural system grow more than the physics system is learned?
The idea that some complex systems can simply grow without inputs is not unfounded in the biological world -- witness, for example, grazing animals such as cows and giraffes that plop out of the birth canal, shakily stand up, and being trotting around. They couldn't have trained that system in the womb.
Similarly, human babies who are growing complex neural systems over years might look like they are learning, but instead they are just growing. That's not to say that we don't learn things later on-- certainly we do-- but that's not evidence that babies are necessarily learning all the skills they become capable of in toddlerhood.
- DavidSJ 11y agoArtificial neural networks also go through predictable and repeatable stages of development as they train on a corpus.
- mladenkovacevic 11y agoThe way you formulated that is fascinating and made me understand the whole debate a little better. The strict order in which we grasp things does indeed indicate that these basic skills are perhaps not left to chance waiting until the correct input is provided, but are hardwired into the process that develops our brains. I guess the Chomsky debate is whether grammar is one of those basic skills. Would two children left unsupervised by adults through their formative years construct their own language that surpasses the communication exhibited by gorillas for example?
- mamcx 11y agoDeaf people? I read somewhere that some kids develop themselves a sign language without their parents help...
- lawpoop 11y agoThis has actually happened-- caveat, with deaf people (but sign language does have grammar)-- check out Nicaraguan Sign Language. Pinker has a good chapter on it in The Language Instinct.