Chomsky, Valiant and the algorithmic mirror: Why engineering really matters

I recently had the pleasure of listening to some of
Chomsky’s
lectures
on
linguistics,
philosophy,
and
the
mind
(on YouTube),
reading some of Chomsky’s work within Linguistics (although certainly not enough)
and reading Leslie
Valiant’s
Probably
Approximately Correct: Nature’s Algorithms for Learning and Prospering in a Complex World.
I was prompted to read the latter by a recent blog post
on Michael Mitzenmacher’s blog and also due to my close familiarity with
Valiant’s academic work and his less-known, eye-opening book
Circuits of the Mind, which I will turn to another time.

Valiant and Chomsky have very different but, in my judgement, entirely complementary — not mutually exclusive — theories about the
nature of intelligence, consciousness and the like. This compatibility of ideas, of course, is no coincidence as one easily
imagines an intimate familiarity of Chomsky’s work on...