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 ( 7792 )
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Ezra Klein and Fareed Zakaria Discuss the Moral Degeneracy of Donald Trump and...
Ezra Klein and Annie Galvin, The Civilization Trump Destroys May Be Our Own, NYTimes, Apr. 10, 2026. Here's the beginning of the interview: Ezra Klein: Fareed... Read more
Posted on 10 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Civil War Among Chimpanzees
Carl Zimmer, These Chimps Began the Bloodiest ‘War’ on Record. No One Knows Why. NYTimes, Apr. 9, 2026. Near the end: And the researchers are still trying to... Read more
Posted on 10 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Recent Assortment
Posted on 10 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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My Music on New Savanna and 3QD
I’ve got quite a lot about music on New Savanna, including quite a bit about my own music. Here’s posts about my interest in jazz, and here’s posts... Read more
Posted on 09 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Daffodils and Pansies
Posted on 09 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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What Place Will America Have in the World Order That’s Beginning to Emerge?
Steven Erlanger, A Cease-Fire for Now in Iran, but a Blow to American Credibility, NYTimes, Apr. 9, 2026. Historical analogies are never exact. But with the... Read more
Posted on 09 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dolphins Getting Stoned
Scientists Caught Dolphins Doing This for 20 Minut https://t.co/RuQgbsKvK6 via @YouTube— Bill Benzon, BAM! Bootstrapping Artificial Minds (@bbenzon) April 8, Read more
Posted on 08 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Which Would You Prefer, Coffee Or Orange Fanta?
Posted on 08 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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How Long Can Democracy Withstand the Assault of AI?
Jennifer M. Harris, We Are Witnessing the Rise of a New Aristocracy, NYTimes, Apr. 8, 2026. Inequality is such a fact of American life that it’s easy to shrug... Read more
Posted on 08 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Water
Posted on 07 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Ramble: What I’ve Been up to in February and March with the Chatbots, the...
This is a somewhat different ramble. Normally I ramble on about things I want to work on but can’t quite prioritize them. So I gather them together in one... Read more
Posted on 07 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Intensity of Light
Posted on 07 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Table of Cultural Ranks from August1981, A Five-Fold View
This post consists of a table that David Hays and I drew up in August 1981, nine years before we pubished our basic article on ranks theory: The Evolution of... Read more
Posted on 07 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Daffodil, Tulips, and Whatever They Are
Posted on 07 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Natural Intelligence Revisited: The Five-Fold Way, A Working Paper
New working paper. Title above, links, abstract, contents, and introduction below: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 06 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Omelet, Bacon, Fries
Posted on 06 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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AI is Changing How Silicon Valley Gets Its Work Done.
Kalley Huang, A.I. Could Change the World. But First It Is Changing Silicon Valley. New York Times, Apr. 2, 1016. But nearly four years after OpenAI lit the A.I. Read more
Posted on 06 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wichita Lineman, Flea/Nick Cave
“Wichita Lineman” by Flea feat. Nick Cave, from Flea’s album ‘Honora,’ out now on Nonesuch Records: https://flea.lnk.to/Honora Flea — Flumpet Nick Cave — Vocal... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Biphasic Sleep Vs. a Continuous 8 Hours
While the soul of this message is true—we shouldn't pathologize every waking moment—the history is a bit more complex.- Biphasic sleep was real. Pre-industrial... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cherry Blossoms and Forsythia
Posted on 05 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
