Bbenzon
Description
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
-
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 ( 7597 )
-
Demis Hassibis is Most Creative at 1AM
Google DeepMind CEO says he starts his second workday at 10 p.m. and com... https://t.co/FzwrCTAaYR via @YouTube— Bill Benzon, BAM! Read more
Posted on 19 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From the Baby Jesus to Neil deGrasse Tyson
This is another post that’s leading up to my next article for 3 Quarks Daily, which will be out next week some time. Working title: “Is The World A Movie God... Read more
Posted on 18 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bach’s Gigue on Microtonal Guitar in Bach’s Student Kirnberger’s Tuning - Burak...
Microtonal Guitar - Tolgahan Çoğulu SUPPORT my DREAM on patreon.com/microtonalguitar BUY an Adjustable Microtonal Guitar: info@microtonalguitar. Read more
Posted on 18 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tulips
Posted on 18 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Iran Was Able to Resist a Bully's Attack, So Can Taiwan.
Daniel Byman and Seth G. Jones, Iran Resisted a Powerful Attacker. Taiwan Can Too. NYTimes, Apr. 19, 2026. As the United States’ and Israel’s war with Iran... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Cosmic Ray Gun
When I was six or seven I had the idea that the world was a movie that God created to entertain the Baby Jesus. I guess I’d found those stories they told in... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Game Theory, Marginalism, and Culture [MR-Aux]
This is another post that’s a byproduct of my examination of Tyler Cowen’s recent monograph, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Plan for Completing My Marginalism Discussion [MR-Aux]
Back on March 27 I posted some remarks on Tyler Cowen’s new monograph, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution. Read more
Posted on 16 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Remember: No Kings!
Posted on 16 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Christianity and Children
I’ve been working on a new post for 3 Quarks Daily, which will be out next week some time. Working title: “Is The World A Movie God Created to Entertain the Bab... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flowers, Geese, Bacon
Posted on 15 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Miriam Yevick Now Has a Wikipedia Entry
The entry is quite recent. I didn’t notice it until yesterday but, judging by the article’s history, it went live on January 1, 2026. It contains some... Read more
Posted on 15 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Diffusion of Sunlight
Posted on 15 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Recursive Self-improvement is an Incoherent Idea
The discourse of artificial intelligence contains a number of technical terms that are only nominally technical; they don’t actually have technical definitions... Read more
Posted on 15 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Roy Eldridge & Charlie Shavers - The Trumpet Battle
From YouTube: High note trumpet kings Roy Eldridge and Charlie Shavers go head to head, no holds barred. Recorded at Carnegie Hall, NYC, Sept. 13, 1952. Read more
Posted on 15 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken, the Hudson River, Cherry Bloosms, the Empire State Building and Orange...
Posted on 14 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
LLMs, the Nature of Language as a Computational Object, and Arithmetic as a...
Early in my undergraduate career at Johns Hopkins I learned about Gödel’s proof, this strange argument that there are statements that are true in arithmetic... Read more
Posted on 14 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Language is a Lower-dimensional Projection of High-dimensional Neural Dynamics.
But it also allows for content addressed memory. That’s very important, for it gives fine-grain control over the memory and planning systems. That’s the job of... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neuro-symbolic Computing Sneaks in Through the "back Door" [a Transitional...
I note that the "scaffolding, tools, memory, retrieval, planning, decomposition, verification, and other system-level affordances" are all symbolic techniques. Read more
Posted on 13 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Synchrony as a General and Widespread Phenomenon
I once asked @stevenstrogatz a simple question.Why do so many systems in nature fall into rhythm?He smiled, almost amused by how deep that question actually... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
