RE: Re: 
[{"sender": "jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Noam Chomsky"], "timestamp": "Thursday, December 24, 2015 9:24 AM", "subject": "RE: Re: ", "body": "we dont teach children to see. they have a visual grammar built in. why wouldnt we expect some mutation of that system to allow auditory grammar."}, {"sender": "Noam Chomsky", "recipients": ["jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]"], "timestamp": "Thursday, December 24, 2015 10:09 AM", "subject": "Re: ", "body": "We don't teach children language either, contrary to many beliefs. The visual grammar just grows, and as is known, can develop in various ways depending on early experience. Same with the language grammar, though the period in which experience has a shaping effect is much longer.\n\nHowever, there are fundamental differences between vision and language. Can send you a recent paper about it if you like. Vision is an input system. Language isn't. It's an internal capacity, a system of knowledge, which is used to process input and also to produce thoughts (sometimes externalized). Seems also to be modality independent. And their properties look wholly different, so it's hard to see how one could piggy-back on the other.\n\nNoam"}, {"sender": "jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Noam Chomsky"], "timestamp": "Thursday, December 24, 2015 10:48 AM", "subject": "Re: ", "body": "The hardware of vision is an input system, It's the software that I'm referring to ."}, {"sender": "Noam Chomsky", "recipients": ["jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]"], "timestamp": "Thursday, December 24, 2015 10:51 AM", "subject": "Re: ", "body": "I presume that the software just guides the hardware. Don't see how that changes the considerations."}, {"sender": "jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Noam Chomsky"], "timestamp": "Thursday, December 24, 2015 10:48 AM", "subject": "Re: ", "body": "Vision rules needed to craft coherent image . Edges? \" Faggehtabowtit.\" Two edges crafted by software"}, {"sender": "Noam Chomsky", "recipients": ["jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]"], "timestamp": "Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 10:51 AM", "subject": "Re: Re: ", "body": "This is the program David Marr initiated, developed by Shimon Ullman and others. Makes sense, and there are some interesting results. David was a friend, and we often discussed these topics. In fact, his famous three levels adapted a model from generative grammar. But there was always the fundamental problem I mentioned. Vision is an input system, crafting coherent images from lines, points of light, etc. Language is used for that purpose too, but it's not what language is.\n\nThat fundamental difference, along with the fact that the principles involved seem quite different, has always been a stumbling block to seeking any link."}, {"sender": "jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Noam Chomsky"], "timestamp": "Thursday, December 24, 2015 11:28 AM", "subject": "Re: Re: ", "body": "thought you might be interested in a new version of the percentage agreement between stalin and churchill. Saudi and Iran doing the same, dividing spheres of influence. . it seems few people paying attention to palestinians . maybe next generation. - israel going further right it appears. I find that media induced fear is driving world markets. . very odd. gas prices down nobody shopping, . hotel prices down less travel, commodity prices way down, little building. luxury market decimated. no russians or chinese players. . still virtually zero interest rates. . borrowing not up, fear and paralysis. , ( I add these topics as to these at least, i can speak with a modicum of knowledge )"}, {"sender": "Noam Chomsky", "recipients": ["jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]"], "timestamp": "12/24/2015 5:37:14 PM", "subject": "RE: Re: ", "body": "Very interesting topics. Would like to hear more from you about them, when we have a chance. Is it worldwide, or mostly here?\n\nMy impression is that the fear is mostly in the US. There's nothing in (much more vulnerable) Europe comparable to the Visa Waiver program (insanely targeting Iran, which has not been involved in terrorism, while exempting Saudi Arabia, the source of almost all jihadi terrorism). Or Trump-style ban them all. Or Cruz-style carpet-bomb them. For a long time, probably back to colonial days, this has been a very frightened country, maybe the safest in the world but also the most frightened. Impressions.\n\nSometimes it's quite weird. By accident, I took the first flight PanAm 103 after the Lockerbie bombing, together with an old friend, a veteran Middle East correspondent. It must have been the safest flight in human history. The plane was empty. We were bumped up to first class because there was no one there."}]