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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More Hoboken Peek-a-Boo
Posted on 27 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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High School Jazz [It Wasn’t Done]
While cruising the web yesterday I came across this video of an incredible high school jazz band. It’s not at all clear to me that there were any high school... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Once More Around the Merry-go-round: Is the Brain a Computer?
I have argued I don’t know how many times that language is the simplest human activity than must be considered computational (e.g. in this comment on Yann... Read more
Posted on 26 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Contrasting Street Scenes [urban Pastoral]
Posted on 26 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Visual Adaptation to an Inverted Visual Field [time-course of Neural Change]
This article speaks to the issue raised in my recent post, Physical constraints on computing, process and memory, Part 1 [LeCun], under the somewhat strange... Read more
Posted on 25 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More from Saturday's Walk
Posted on 25 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Physical Constraints on Computing, Process and Memory, Part 1 [LeCun]
Yann LeCun recently posted a major position paper that has been receiving quite a bit of discussion: Yann LeCun, A Path Towards Autonomous Machine... Read more
Posted on 24 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Yesterday's Walk
Posted on 24 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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'Parentese' May Be Universal [baby Talk]
Oliver Whang, ‘Parentese’ is Truly a Lingua Franca, Global Study Finds, NYTimes, July 24, 2022. Regardless of whether it helps to know it, researchers recently... Read more
Posted on 24 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Down by the River [Hoboken Pier 13]
Posted on 23 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Steven Pinker and Scott Aaronson Debate the Nature of Intelligence and...
They're at it again: More AI debate between me and Steven Pinker! Here's my contribution (so far): I’m sympathetic with Pinker and I think I know where he’s... Read more
Posted on 23 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Throwing Shade on the Simulation Hypothesis
Older posts: My problem with the simulation argument: It’s too idealist in its assumptions (all mind, no matter), July 25, 2018 The Simulation Hypothesis, a... Read more
Posted on 23 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Doors, Bugsy [Media Notes 75e, 76] {narcissistic Adolescents Doing Their...
I watched The Doors (1991) the other day and figured that maybe I’d cap off my series on How to Change Your Mind by reviewing The Doors and making some general... Read more
Posted on 22 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Irises! Why Not?
Posted on 22 July 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Nano Tech on the Move: World's First Motor Made of DNA
Very happy to share our first molecular motor made of DNA, open access to everyone to read @Nature https://t.co/kzVGbknHv4 . It is a ratchet! And it can wind a... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Effects of Scaling Model Parameters, but Not Number of Tokens
Rohin Shah, [AN #173] Recent language model results from DeepMind, LessWrong, July 20, 2022. Scaling Language Models: Methods, Analysis Insights from... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Racism and Social Welfare in the Good Old USofA
Bryce Covert, There’s a Reason We Can’t Have Nice Things, NYTimes, July 21, 2022. The United States is one of six countries in the world without a national... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Solarpunk Future
Waffle To The Left 37,574 views Oct 19, 2021 The solarpunk-inspired 'Dear Alice' commercial produced by the animation company The Line for Chobani is one of... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Protest [Liberty State Park 12.2.17]
The Future The Mayor The Governor Read more
Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Protest Isn't Enough [social Media Facilitates Protest Without Grass-roots...
Zeynep Tufekci, I Was Wrong About Why Protests Work, NYTimes, July 21, 2022. Post 2000 or so, large protests seem to emerge from nowhere and grow quickly,... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
