<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="#954F72" style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our 65th Annual Lecture Series Talk. Attend in person in room 1008 in the Cathedral of Learning (10th Floor)  or visit our live stream on YouTube at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg" target="_blank"><span style="border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</span></a>.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit"><p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:#191919;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Colin Klein</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:#191919"><u></u><u></u></span></p></div><p style="margin:0in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Australian National University</span><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:#1155cc"><u></u><u></u></span></p><div id="m_-7767294378486961656m_6753496264259951926x_x_x_x_x_x_Signature"><div style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;text-align:start;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">Friday, October 11th  @ 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm EDT<u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div style="margin-bottom:9.0pt;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Title: Transformers, Representational Structure, and the Language of Thought</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Abstract:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">Transformers are an extraordinarily powerful computational architecture, applicable across a range of domains. They are, notably,  the computational foundation of contemporary Large Language Models (LLMs).  LLMs’ facility with language have led many to draw analogies between LLMs and human cognitive processing. Drawing out the consequences of what seems like an innocuous step—the need for positional encoding of the input to LLMs—I argue that transformers are broad precisely because they have so little built-in representational structure. This naturally raises questions about the need for structured representations and what (if any) advantage they might have over mere representation of structure. I develop this in particular in the context of the contemporary revival of the Language of Thought hypothesis.<u></u><u></u></span></p><div style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;text-align:start;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">A reception with light refreshments will follow the Talk in The Center on the 11^th floor from 5-6pm.</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;text-align:start;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Can’t make it in-person? This talk will available online through the following:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;text-align:start;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Zoom at </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:#2d8cff;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><a href="https://pitt.zoom.us/s/98186620578" target="_blank"><span style="color:#2d8cff">https://pitt.zoom.us/s/98186620578</span></a></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:#242424"><u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-size-adjust:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;text-align:start;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">YouTube at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg" target="_blank"><span style="color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</span></a>.<u></u><u></u></span></p></div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div>
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