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 ( 6476 )
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If He Accomplishes Nothing Else, Biden Should Be Able to Rebuild the Executive...
Assuming Biden manages to eke out a victory, there's still the Senate. Even if the Democates manage a majority, which doesn't seem likely, it would be the... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tim Burke's Reflections on the Fragility of Left-liberalism and of the...
Tim Burke, There's Got to Be a Morning After, Easily Distracted, Nov. 4, 2020. His opening shot: "The liberal-left coalition is not just weak in the United... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
To Rebuild the Country [alienation and Hopelessness], Start at the Local Level
Yuval Levin, Either Trump or Biden Will Win. But Our Deepest Problems Will Remain. NYTimes, Nov. 3, 2020. Yuval observes that, for the most part, "our deepest... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Two Photos for Election Day, One Patriotic and One Partisan
Posted on 03 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Regardless of Who Wins the Election, Trump “has Attacked the Independent,...
Thomas Edsall has an excellent, and fairly long, opinion piece in the NYTimes today, Be Ready for a Lengthy, Vicious Struggle (Nov. 3, 2020). Read more
Posted on 03 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Glenn Loury Has an Excellent Discussion About Obama Democrats Who Went for...
The good stuff, about honor culture, starts at about 19:16 and continues to the end. Glenn Loury talks with Jon Shields, co-author, with Stephanie Muravchik,... Read more
Posted on 03 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
GPT-3 is Not the Beginning of Artificial General Intelligence
There has been much talking about GPT-3 and the remarkable texts it can produce automatically. With @massimochi we analyse it in this OA article"GPT-3: its... Read more
Posted on 02 November 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
There’s More to Progress Than (mere) Productivity: What About Diversity of...
The literature on economic growth seems to have settled on productivity as the defining measure of progress, which is not unreasonable. Read more
Posted on 31 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Caven Point – Trees, Leaves, Bushes, Grass, Buildings, Sky [urban Pastoral]
Some notes on the fourth photo, reading it from bottom to top. The blurry stuff at the bottom is plants relatively near to me while I'm focused on those sky... Read more
Posted on 31 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Simulation Hypothesis, a Reductio Ad Absurdum [where Have All the Good...
Tyler Cowen has an interesting take on the simulation hypothesis (the idea that we’re living in a computer simulation): As you may already know, my view is... Read more
Posted on 31 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Does the Future of AI Belong to Deep Pockets? [Gwern Addendum]
3.Overall, there is a “de-democratization of AI research” due to the rise of DL, which requires lot of computing power. There's an uneven access to computing... Read more
Posted on 30 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: FR8s, Graffiti at Caven Point
Posted on 30 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Ranch [all in the Family | Media Notes 51]
I started watching The Ranch when it first started streaming in 2018 and stuck with it for, say, a season and a half and dropped it for whatever reason. Read more
Posted on 30 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is American Exceptionalism at Core a Detachment from Reality?
John Gray reviews Bruno Maçães, History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America, in The New Statesman, October 28, 2020. So: For the Portuguese former... Read more
Posted on 30 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A World and Its Reflection [Caven Point, Liberty State Park]
Posted on 28 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Covid-19 Virus Has Mutated During the Course of the Pandemic
This work was done by an exceptional team of virologists at UTMB. It's rigorous and shows pretty clearly that G614 increases infectivity in human lung cells ... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adam Roberts Reviews Kim Stanley Robinson's "Ministry of the Future" –...
He’s ambivalent: It’s a righteous novel, and I’m a KSR fan of longstanding, so I expected to like Ministry of the Future. And I did, if only up to a point.... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Kinds of Red [fall Foliage]
Posted on 26 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is the Fact That Ideas Are Nonrival the Key to Economic Growth in the 21st...
I’ve been chewing on one particular paragraph, the final one, of Bloom et al. “Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?”[1] Why? Because it bears on just what (these... Read more
Posted on 23 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Foreign Places in the Key of Burnt Orange
Posted on 23 October 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY