Bbenzon
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
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New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 6449 )
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Intimate Enemies: What’s Opera, Doc?
Since I've recently been discussing the fate of classical music (see this post, and this one too) I've decided to jump this post from March of 2012 to the top o... Read more
Posted on 01 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
I Discuss the Decline of Classical Music @ 3QD
I've got a new post at 3 Quarks Daily: Roll over Beethoven: Where’d classical music go? Classical music is still with us, of course, but it no longer has the... Read more
Posted on 01 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neuroscience and Control Theory
I am really digging this mashup of network neuroscience and control theory https://t.co/d60Ly8cizC— Patrick Mineault (@patrickmineault) January 30, 2022 Here's ... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Training Physical Neural Nets with Back Propagation
Deep physical neural networks trained with back propagation! @Nature https://t.co/ZXcUbreP7O pic.twitter.com/GWcF6LgzT1— Mackenzie W Mathis (@TrackingActions)... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Follow the Spheres [Chinese Lion]
Posted on 28 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neurons Learn by Predicting Future Activity
Well, it's fascinating stuff ⚡️𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻... Read more
Posted on 28 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Training GPT3 to Be More Responsive
We've trained GPT-3 to be more aligned with what humans want: The new InstructGPT models are better at following human intent than a 100x larger model, while... Read more
Posted on 28 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Back in the Day...what Choices for an Evening out in NYC
Looking over my entertainment options for this evening. Sam Cooke at the @ApolloTheater? Brubeck at @carnegiehall? Miles Davis at the Village Vanguard? Dylan... Read more
Posted on 27 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The "two-sleep" System (two Periods of Sleep at Night, Separated by Wakefulness)
Zaria Gorvett, The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps', BBC Future, Jan 9, 2022. Much of the article is apparently based on, Roger Ekrich, At Day's Close: ... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Winter in the Arches, a Close-up
Posted on 20 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Prospective Learning: Back to the Future
AI and natural intelligence (NI) appear so different. A group of us asked “why?” The answer: we have to go back to the future! https://t.co/FuEZZOpkQXA thread.... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Public Representation of the Humanities as Revealed in a Corpus 147K Recent...
Fantastic new piece in @CulturalAnalyt by @lindsaycthomas and @abigaildroge that studies the public representation of the humanities across a collection of... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Topics in Music Change: Old Music Strangles New, New Grows Over Old, and a...
Two rather general sets of remarks, one set prompted by Ted Gioia, the other by Tyler Cowen, followed by a bunch of specifics about classical music and jazz... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Red, Green, and White (leaves and Flowers)
Posted on 19 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
It Seems That AI Has Solved Poker
Keith Romer, How A.I. Conquered Poker, NYTimes Magazine, 1.18.22. Von Neumann: Using his own simplified version of the game, in which two players were randomly... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dick Macksey's Library Made the NYTimes Today (1.16.22)
Photo: Will Kirk/Johns Hopkins University Dick Macksey’s library made the NYTimes today. Macksey died in July of 2019, but his library, or rather a simulacrum o... Read more
Posted on 16 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Don't Look Up" is a Hit [Media Notes 65d]
Cara Buckley, “Don’t Just Watch: Team Behind ‘Don’t Look Up’ Urges Climate Action,” NYTimes, 1.11.22: After the film premiered in December, climate scientists... Read more
Posted on 12 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Powers of Ten" Updated
Powers of Ten, the short 1968 documentary by Ray and Charles Eames has been updated to reflect current knowledge: Note, however, that while the original... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Willard Quine on Limits to Knowing
It seems to me, off-hand, this Quine's discussion has some bearing on John Horgan's concerns about the end of science. It may also have some bearing on the... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Don’t Read "Don't Look Up" Too Narrowly [Matt Yglesias] [Media Notes 65c]
The film’s creators say it’s a satire about climate change. But what do they know? Yglesias says: If you insist on listening to the creators and seeing it as... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY