Riddley Walker but for Fodor
My plans for the near- to mid-future here
“If the way is diffrent the end is diffrent. Becaws the end aint nothing only part of the way its jus that part of the way where you come to a stop. The end cud be any part of the way its in every step of the way thats why you bes go ballsy.”
-Russell Hoban, Riddey Walker
I’ve been working on two papers this summer*, one on how all word learning patterns suggested to be the result of concept learning can be explained by other discontinuities (plus committing to a cross-situational word learning algorithm) and another on what LLMs can do for word learning (I argue little). Since they’re closely related a lot of other, smaller ideas have come up in the process. I don’t think it made sense to force them into anything, and they don’t on the face of it seem related enough to justify putting something else together, so I jotted them down and figured I could try seeing how they stand as short essays.
I’m hoping to put them out as a series through this substack, so I figured it might be useful to let you know what’s on the menu. It also allows me to do it in my voice and to make jokes, in short, to have any style whatsoever, instead of having to filter it through the lens of what may be acceptable to academic publications. It also allows me to fully express myself as a member of the original hyperlink generation. And, of course, if anyone has any other related ideas, I’d love to hear them, or chat, or maybe even putting something together collaboratively. Anyway, onto the substance.
Spoiler alert, it’s a series of essays inspired by reading a lot of Jerry Fodor. But, I was properly introduced to JayFo by Lila Gleitman**, so naturally a lot of my approach is sort of a synthesis of Lila and Jerry. I hope neither would be offended by my attempts to interpret them, and even critique them. Here are the topics, some, if they get big enough, may escape this series:
“Why Fodor? He’s, like, such an asshole..,” or, Concepts Are Political!
As now, so long ago: Recapitulating Recapitulation Theories in Cognitive Science
Sherlock Holmes and Dirk Gently
The New Old Guard: why the Language of Thought is back
Beyond Fast Mapping, There’s Still Mapping
Does the Child as Scientist have tenure or are they stuck adjuncting?
Why learning may feel more exciting than it is
Cognition Science’s Gordian Knot
Disentangling positions on nativism, modularity, association, conceptual structure, Whorfianism, tractability, and productivity
Meaning: We should just be happy the damn thing works
Phew, that’s a lot of ideas! Well, this may take me a while, perhaps a year or two (especially if more come up along the way). Once I finish my current paper (on concept/word learning), I won’t have much more I’m expected to write and will put my focus here. My plan is to make initial drafts available to paid subscribers (so I can get feedback), before making them available publicly. Hopefully this will result in a better product for free subscribers, but if you’d really like to have a say, consider subscribing (or, if you’re a true Fodorian, send me an email and I’ll give you a complimentary subscription). I can explain more soon, but my financial situation is changing, so anything helps, iff you can spare it (otherwise consider reaching out :) ).
If you’re thinking “What makes you feel qualified to do this? Aren’t you a shitposter and all around nuisance?” Well, yes, but that’s more of a hobby. You can find out more at my site victorgom.es or my about page. Plus, I actually used to write more, both in science communication and not. I actually pitched a few psycholinguistic/cognitive ideas to Nautilus when I interned, but apparently “that’s not interesting to anyone but you.” But, Jerry (and Elan Dresher) both had regular popular science pieces, and they aren’t just fun and fairly accessible, they also give insight into the history - the emotions and social dynamics - that are part of our field. I worry that as academic writing (and popular science) moves towards a monoculture in terms of style and content, future students of the field will have a hard time making sense of this current moment. So, what I may also do is conduct interviews (like the one I did with Charles Yang***) if I can find the time, as part of gathering more than just my perspective. If you have suggestions for folks in the field who are familiar with the history and enjoy talking about, please reach out!
Oh! and if you made it this far you’re probably wondering what the hell Riddley Walker has to do with this. Well, it’s set in a post-apocalyptic future where the primary oral tradition is a set of stories built from St. Eustace but the over generations became reinterpreted before ultimately becoming it’s very own thing. I guess that’s what I’m suggesting I’m doing, leaving after Fodor and attempting to parse him through his works and the stories others have told.
Postscript: I started preparing this yesterday and woke to the news that Jon Henner has shuffled from this mortal coil. If you didn’t have a chance to interact with Jon, I’m sorry to say it’s too late. But, you can find a piece he spent much time over here I think it’s critical we carry Jon’s torch forward, as he was always quick to point out audism as it surfaced within the field and elsewhere as well as related issues in the language sciences. He accepted that this work is political rather than tried to ignore it, and he held others to task. So should we! There’s so much good to be done still (or, negative framing, the world is still so bad) so let’s get to it. If Jon’s families/friends end up sharing any fundraiser, I’ll be sure to share it in one of the next posts.
* Well, I finished editing a third and it’s now out so you can read it here.
** I wasn’t literally introduced to Jerry by Lila, sadly I’m too young (a spry 28) and he passed before I had the fortune of meeting Lila.
*** Just to note potential conflict of interest, Charles is now part of my dissertation committee. I’ll try to note this as I go along, but for now assume I have a conflict of interest with anyone affiliated with UPenn (for better or worse!).