On 5/18/19 I sent this:
Nobabies.net
May 17, 2019
Brian Hare
Duke University
b.hare@duke.edu
Dear Dr. Hare,
You are mentioned in an article (David Grimm “Ready to Pounce” Science vol. 364 no. 6440 May 10, 2019 page 522) about cognitive ability in cats. I realized that you can probably answer a question I have had, the enormous importance, not to say cosmic importance of which makes me almost fear knowing the answer. Usually I confine myself to emails, because if I say something I want it documented. In this case, however, using an email would mean losing an opportunity you might not wish to use.
Please give me a jingle, any time 24/7. If you will indulge me for a couple of minutes we can test something that will be much harder to test later. At that point I shall be eager to ask the Big Question and give the context. You may be able to tell me off the top of your head. Otherwise there may be a cheap and easy paper for you that will, again, stun the world.
My phone number is 727 584 7184. Please leave a message since nine out of 10 calls I get are of the nuisance variety.
Once you have had a chance to consider whether to answer the first question or to turf it over to a student, there is another issue that is of greater practical importance that may interest you. I am trying to gather a number of anthropologists who jointed to write a festschrift for Robin Fox of Rutgers. If I can get that to happen, you might like to join us, whether you take an interest in my dog question or not.
All the best,
Linton Herbert
On May 22 I followed it up with this:
Nobabies.net
May 17, 2019
Brian Hare
Duke University
b.hare@duke.edu
Dear Dr. Hare,
The question I lay before you is: people can do abstract reasoning; can dogs? The experimental design to inquire into this is very simple. I’m sure you can come up with a better one than I can, but if you have any hesitation, I explain. In due course, assuming I do not hear from you, I shall post this on my web site, and maybe somebody else will look into it.
Along with dogs you might test some other animals such as cats, chimps and octopus, rats and voles, ravens and vultures, horses and dolphins, which would be a crowd pleaser. Don’t worry about getting a pile of nothing but negative results; obviously you can test to see at what age a child gains the ability.
Many years ago, the renowned genius Alan Turing enunciated the Turing test: place a person at a teletype terminal, explaining that at the other end of the line is either a computer or a person. The challenge is to decide whether the subject can tell the difference; if not, then the computer is conscious. The question of the relative interest, intelligence and motivation of the people or person was not addressed. I consider the issue to be beneath Turing, but there are those who know nothing else about him.
More interestingly Turing proved mathematically that there is no general algorithm that will allow one to know the outcome of a computer program without actually running the program. This was a mathematical proof. I looked at it and although it seemed sound to me, I did not completely follow it. I asked a mathematics professor to explain it, but he declined. I’m sure your people skills are better than mine.
My impression is that anything science can describe can be laid out by a computer. Thus abstract reasoning is beyond the reach of science. Lots of people can do abstract reasoning, but so far as I know (and I might not know) nobody has ever studied it as a phenomenon in and of itself. After an hour of working on it you, or whoever, will be the world’s expert on what I take to be the most interesting – if not the only interesting – question in the field of cognition. That should be worth something.
I still hope to recruit you to meet with some other anthropologists to discuss the greater issue. I shall attach a summary. As you will soon see, it takes some abstract reasoning to see the truth.
All the best,
Linton Herbert