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
-
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 )
-
From My Notes: Religion and Music in America
References: Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, Visions, Princeton UP, 1999. Richard Crawford, America’s Musical Life, WW Norton, 2001. Read more
Posted on 04 August 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Christmas Exotica [Longwodd Gardens]
Posted on 03 August 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Structured Physical System Hypothesis (SPSH), Polyviscous Connectivity [The Brai...
Over in the discussion of Yann LeCun’s recent paper (A Path Towards Autonomous Machine Intelligence), Saty Chary has been arguing for something he calls the... Read more
Posted on 03 August 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Graffiti in the Shadows
Posted on 02 August 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
A Song Is Born: Some Fine all-American Musical Hokum from 1948
From A Song is Born (1948) starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, and directed by Howard Hawks and a bunch of superb swing musicians. Read more
Posted on 02 August 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Problem of Punishing Corporations [no Law Worth Spit, No Justice]
A really interesting discussion with Will Thomas, Uinversity of Michigan Ross School of Business, about the problem of punishing corporations. This raises... Read more
Posted on 01 August 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mystery Markings in Hoboken [tag Up]
Posted on 01 August 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
On the Stupidity of Democratic Organizers [fewer Emails, More Retail Politics]
Lara Putnam and Micah L. Sifry, Fed Up With Democratic Emails? You’re Not the Only One. NYTimes, August 1, 2022. National Democratic and progressive groups... Read more
Posted on 01 August 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dark Matter Isn't What It Used to Be Three Cheers for Condensed Matter]
Have you seen this? https://t.co/ZkfoNH3LMY— Ian Robinson (@IanRobinson) August 1, 2022 Topics in the video: 0:00 Intro 0:23 What is dark matter? Read more
Posted on 01 August 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Men at Work [Hoboken]
Posted on 31 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Are We Watching the End of the 40-hour Work Week? [progress]
Alyson Krueger, Gen Z Knows What It Wants From Employers. And Employers Want Them. NYtimes, July 31, 2022. In the past year, Legoland New York has joined a... Read more
Posted on 31 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ellen & Yoyoka Q&A: “I Usually Just Start to Feel the Music and Go Crazy”
Yoyoka is a Japanese girl (12 years I believe) who plays the drums and has become fairly well known on social media. Ellen is 10 and plays bass. Ellen's... Read more
Posted on 31 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hazing May Not Increase Social Solidarity
Aldo Cimino, Benjamin J. Thomas, Does hazing actually increase group solidarity? Re-examining a classic theory with a modern fraternity, Evolution and Human... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flower Time
Posted on 30 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Beethoven Was a Supremely Gifted Improvisor – From the Testimony of His...
My own encounter with improvisation was indirect, fitful, indirect, and almost accidental. I started taking trumpet lessons in the fourth grade. Read more
Posted on 30 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Playing for Peace: Reclaiming Our Human Nature
Charlie Keil and I have a new book out (title above). It’s the third book in our series, Local Paths to Peace Today. The first two are: We Need a Department of... Read more
Posted on 29 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: It's Music Day!
Posted on 29 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Toward a Standard Model of Mind? – Automatic & Deliberate Learning
Two papers Kotseruba, I., Tsotsos, J.K. 40 years of cognitive architectures: core cognitive abilities and practical applications. Artif Intell Rev 53, 17–94... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Shades
Posted on 28 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
The Machine Majority Language Problem [entropic Text]
Ouroboros information economy. Related to what @bratton co dubbed the ouroboros problem looming over ML when models start getting trained on output of models. Read more
Posted on 28 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
