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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Balloons Going out to Sea
Posted on 05 December 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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ChatGPT Goes to the Movies, Jaws and Girard @3QD
My latest post at 3 Quarks Daily is now up: Conversing with ChatGPT about Jaws, Mimetic Desire, and Sacrifice Working on it was a blast, but also, you know,... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How ChatGPT Parodied “Kubla Khan” and Pwned DJT45 at the Same Time
Prelude Man, if you can’t have more fun than a barrel of monkeys while playing with ChatGPT, then you aren’t human. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think ChatGPT... Read more
Posted on 04 December 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunrise Serenade (from June)
Posted on 03 December 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Screaming on the Flat Part of the Roller Coaster Ride: From GPT-3 to ChatGPT
Back in May of 2021 I did a blog post in which I asked GPT-3 to analyze a Jerry Seinfeld bit. OpenAI has now released a somewhat updated version, ChatGPT. I... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Branches and Sky
Posted on 30 November 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Saudi Arabia, Soup to Nuts, Some Informative Notes
Matt Lakeman, Notes on Saudi Arabia, November 22, 2022 This essay is my attempt to explain what has been happening in Saudi Arabia over the last five years,... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Meta Announces CICERO, an AI That Plays Diplomacy
Meta AI presents CICERO — the first AI to achieve human-level performance in Diplomacy, a strategy game which requires building trust, negotiating and... Read more
Posted on 25 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Cognitive Maps to Spatial Schemas
Indeed a really important contribution that @DelaFarzanfar @RosenbaumLab and I cover in Fig 2 of our new review on spatial schemas:https://t.co/f8kzodrcNh... Read more
Posted on 24 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Whatever Happened to Work? [hard-core No More]
While Musk in exhorting the remaining employees at Twitter to work "hard core," many Americans are rethinking the idea of work: Jessica Bennett, "The Worst... Read more
Posted on 24 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bilingual Readers Possess Two Distinct Visual Word Form Areas (VWFA)
Do bilingual readers possess two distinct visual word form areas (VWFA) ?See our new preprint on the cortical circuits for reading in high-resolution 7 Tesla... Read more
Posted on 22 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dance to the Music: The Kids Owned the Day@3QD [dance Competition]
In my latest post at 3 Quarks Daily I report on a dance competition where I was hired to photograph the dancers: Dance to the Music: The Kids Owned the Day At... Read more
Posted on 22 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Near Future of AI is Action-Driven [+Adept]
Basic thesis is that while generative text is cool, the true power of LLMs will be unlocked by giving them actions they can take in the world. pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 20 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
SBF and FTX – "the Horror! the Horror!"
1.) I don't have a lot to say about this debacle in the world of billionaires and cryptocurrency. If you're curious, Zvi Mowshowitz has a long blog post in whic... Read more
Posted on 19 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Merger Between AT&T AND Times Warner Failed Because of Incompatible Corporat...
James b. Stewart, Was This $100 Billion Deal the Worst Merger Ever? NYTimes, Nov. 19, 2022. This is a fascinating article, well worth reading. Read more
Posted on 19 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Astronaut
Wrote a little poem. It's for kids. #poem #poetry #kidlit (Tips: https://t.co/SCJUKxdEgs) pic.twitter.com/X7Pcm1nyq3— Rolli (@rolliwrites) November 14, Read more
Posted on 15 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Calcification and Chaos in Contemporary American Politics [Ezra Klein]
Ezra Klein, “Three Theories that Explain this Strange Moment,” The NYTimes, Nov. 12, 2022. Calcification (and chaos): The cause of this calcification is no... Read more
Posted on 12 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Strange Animals [Art Fair]
Posted on 12 November 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Dreams of Artificial People, Through History [ontological Ambiguity]
From an article by Stephen Marche, “The Imitation of Consciousness: On the Present and Future of Natural Language Processing,” Literary Hub, June 23, 2021. The... Read more
Posted on 12 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Thoughts on War and Ukraine @3QD
Back in Octobor I posted a short article on the Ukraine war at 3 Quarks Daily: All roads lead to Ukraine [war] – Scattered fragments of a [nuclear] memoir It’s... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
