Noam Chomsky: Enumeration Leads to Language

One of my favorite videos, including a bit where famed linguist Noam Chomsky theorizes that a mutation in the brain regarding “likely recursive enumerations, allowed all human language”.

I have a possibly dangerous inclination to mention this on the first day of an algebra class when we define different sets of numbers, which is possibly a time-sink and a distraction for students at that point. But still, this is the guts of the thing.

(Video should be starting at 33m25s.)