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
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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 ( 7356 )
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Japanese Kitchens
From Japanology Plus: In centuries past, cooking in a Japanese kitchen involved moving between a dirt floor and a raised area with wooden floorboards. Read more
Posted on 20 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
John Faddis in Jersey City
Posted on 20 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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When Broadway Took on Its Characteristic Sepia Glow – Brother John Hits One Outa...
John McWhorter nails it: The Black Musical That May Have Inspired Gershwin, NYTimes, Jan. 19, 2023. He’s writing about Shuffle Along, an all-Black musical that... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mondrian's Plastic Shack at Night
Posted on 19 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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What Does ChatGPT Know About Grammar and Nonsense?
My ChatGPT posts so far have been about discourse. Now I want to post so sentence-level material. I begin by asking ChatGPT to count the number of words in a... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kimono Mom: How I Study English | Make Video in English
Back in November I sent the following note to Victor Mair, a distinguished sinologist who blogs at Language Log? Victor, You might find this video interesting.... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sun Ra All Stars and the Sun Ra Arkestra with Archie Shepp Berlin 10/291983
Sun Ra - All Stars 1983-October-29 Berlin, Germany, Philharmonie, Jazztage 1983 Don Cherry,tp,voc Lester Bowie,tp Marshall Allen,as,per John Gilmore,ts,fl Archi... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Moving, the C Train at 103rd
Posted on 18 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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ChatGPT Offers Several Interpretations of Jaws and Gets Bogged Down in a Questio...
I’ve had two posts in which ChatGPT offers Girardian interpretations of Jaws. Can it do other kinds of interpretations? Let’s find out. But is there any doubt... Read more
Posted on 18 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Whoops! Science Ain't What It Used to Be. Have the Cookie-cutters and Clerks...
William J. Broad, What Happened to All of Science’s Big Breakthroughs? NYTimes, Jan. 17, 2023. From the opening: Miracle vaccines. Videophones in our pockets.... Read more
Posted on 18 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Inside ChatGBT's Combinatorium {'mind' to You}
Posted on 17 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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What Happens When You Ask ChatGPT to Tell Stories About Giant Chocolate...
So far I’ve had ChatGPT tell stories about people mostly, but also there’s a robot, an earthquake, some bees, and space aliens too. What would happen if I... Read more
Posted on 17 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trains Are Linear Objects as Well. How Do Train Stations Mediate Between Crowds...
Posted on 16 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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At the Most General Level, What Are Transformers Doing?
By transformer I mean the computer architecture behind large language models such as ChatGPT. By “most general level” I mean, just that. I have no intention of... Read more
Posted on 16 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
NOT Written by ChatGPT, Though Surely Some Writer Somewhere is Tagging up as...
Posted on 16 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Chat Goes to School
Kalley Huang, Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach, NYTimes, Jan. 16, 2023. A philosophy professor caught one of his students... Read more
Posted on 16 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Note About Story Grammars in ChatGPT
A new working paper, just a note really. Title above, links, abstract, and opening paragraphs below: Academia:... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Breakfast Candids: French Toast, Bacon, $$ [lingonberries]
Posted on 15 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Tyler Cowen on the Existential Risk of AI [color Him Skeptical]
peterhartree, Tyler Cowen on effective altruism (December 2022), Effective Altruism Forum. From the transcript of a talk given in December of 2022 and hosted... Read more
Posted on 14 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tyler Cowen, Straussian Reading, and Žižek in Wakanda
A couple of years ago I decided to write a post about Tyler Cowen’s use of the term “Straussian reading.” Tyler has now posted an account of the matter that... Read more
Posted on 13 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
