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 ( 7824 )
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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 -
Very Young Children in Japan: “Old Enough” and “Kimono Mom” [Media Notes 81]
Two things here, both from Japan: Old Enough, a new Netflix series based on a series of short vignettes originally filmed in Japan between 1988 and 1994, and... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Really? Green and Purple
Posted on 09 November 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Awakening to the Meaning Crisis – An Interesting Conversation
0:00 Signs of the so-called “meaning crisis” 3:50 How John addresses the meaning crisis in his own life 10:04 Bob gets empathy-circled—live! 18:48 How much of... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Andy Warhol Diaries [Media Notes 80]
I was certainly away of Any Warhol, the soup cans, the Factory, being shot, Interview magazine, Studio 54, and so forth. I particularly remember a short... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Distribution of Neurotransmitters in the Brain
Mapping neurotransmitter systems to the structural and functional organization of the human neocortex | https://t.co/CLp1wYHP35Led by @JustineYHansen out now... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sadness is on the Rise Across the Globe
The Rising Tide of Global Sadness https://t.co/7gLr5rX8gR— Bill Benzon, BAM! Bootstrapping Artificial Minds (@bbenzon) October 28, 2022 From the article: The... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What's That Triangular Building?
Posted on 26 October 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Why Imagine Future Dystopias Rather Than Utopias? [Rogue-AI]
In a typical Black Mirror episode:• An improvement plausibly on the horizon is imagined.• It happens.• Everything goes horribly wrong. Read more
Posted on 26 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Interesting Discussion of the Implications of Anarchy in Outer Space
Nonzero: Is Outer Space the New Wild West? | (Robert Wright Douglas Ligor) There are 10s of thousands of chunks of space debris in low earth orbit as the... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is This How Putin Thinks About Using Nukes?
Douglas London, Addressing Putin’s Nuclear Threat: Thinking Like the Cold War KGB Officer That He Was, Just Security, October 18, 2022: From the article: As a... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Under the 14th St. Viaduct
Posted on 20 October 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Interpersonal Synch is Stronger Face-to-face Than in Video Chat
Face-to-face interaction elicits more inter-brain synchronization than video-chat interaction. Moreover, associations with behavior emerge only during f2f... Read more
Posted on 19 October 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
