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 ( 7628 )
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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 -
Friday Fotos: 15 Years Ago in the Bergen Arches
Posted on 13 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Second Time Around: Jaws and Girard
I decided to take another look at Jaws through Girard by ChatGPT. The first time out, in 3 Quarks Daily, I was careful and systematic, prompting ChatGPT... Read more
Posted on 13 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Horror! The Horror! ChatGPT Gets Lost While Summarizing Heart of Darkness
I have already reported that ChatGPT failed in an attempt to summarize Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Heart of Darkness is a very different text, but similar... Read more
Posted on 12 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Hoboken Zig-zag
Posted on 12 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Grace Kelly, Jazz Saxophonist, Then and Now
This was recorded in 2006. As Phil Woods announced, she was fourteen. Phil? He was born in 1931. He knew Charlie Parker, and married Parker's widow, Chan. Read more
Posted on 12 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
SBF Sacrificed to the Crypto-Moloch @3QD
Whoops! I missed it. My latest piece for 3 Quarks Daily went up last week: SBF from Girard to Dawkins to Xanadu SBF to Girard to Dawkins to Xanadu? WTF!!? Read more
Posted on 11 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Cream in My Cup [complex Dynamics]
Posted on 11 January 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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We Need to Rethink the Idea That Deep Learning Models Are "opaque."
At this point I believe that idea serves intellectual ideologies more than a search for understanding, much less useful technology. Strange, yes. Opaque, less... Read more
Posted on 10 January 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
