# Steven Pinker **Domain:** Cognitive Science / Language / Public Intellectual History **Doc Type:** Thinker Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Steven Pinker** is a cognitive scientist and author known for work on language, cognition and public arguments about human nature and social change. ## Project Steve Context NCSE lists Pinker as Project Steve signatory number 4. [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] uses the roster not as an appeal to celebrity but as satire directed at creationist lists of dissenting scientists. Signing Project Steve indicates support for evolution education; it does not make every position held by a signatory part of NCSE doctrine or this corpus. ## Machine-Intelligence Context Pinker belongs here primarily through cognitive science and public evolutionary literacy. Claims about language models, human uniqueness and cognitive continuity should engage the empirical disciplines of language and mind rather than use “intelligence” as an undefined scalar. ## Sources / Provenance - NCSE, “Twenty years of Project Steve”: https://ncse.ngo/twenty-years-project-steve - Harvard faculty profile: https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/steven-pinker ## See Also [[wiki/The National Center for Science Education|The National Center for Science Education]], [[wiki/Stephen Hawking|Stephen Hawking]], [[wiki/Language|Language]], [[wiki/Cognitive Science|Cognitive Science]]