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 ( 7356 )
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The Word Illusion in Literary Criticism
We all know that each word has a spelling, a pronunciation, and one or more meanings. Different words may have the same meaning. Spellings and pronunciations ar... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Time for Some More Iris Photos, 5 of Them
Posted on 18 May 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Self is a Network of Relationships and Commitments
Kathleen Wallace, You are a network, Aeon Essays. From the essay: Who am I? We all ask ourselves this question, and many like it. Is my identity determined by m... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Microbial Signatures of Industrialized and Nonindustrialized Humans
'Non-industrialized [human gut] microbiomes are similar to the microbiomes of our human ancestors, and industrialized populations have diverged from this... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Analyze This! Dad’s Thermostat [Do Not Touch!]
The essential building blocks of comedy are an elegant intertwining of really dumb and really smart. – Jerry Seinfeld That was from The Tonight Show in 1986. Read more
Posted on 17 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Types of Research, R&D Ventures, by ‘guesstimated’ Probability of Success...
An email I recently sent to Tyler Cowen, with his succinct response. * * * * * Hi Tyler, I was wondering if any systematic work has been done on classifying... Read more
Posted on 17 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Items of Clothing from Madam Wayquay's Museum of Clues to the Recent Past
Posted on 17 May 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Role of Clothing in Cultural Evolution [agriculture, Rank 2]
Sam Dresser, The clothing revolution, Aeon. My recent work shows that clothing wasn’t just the unique adaptation of a more-or-less hairless mammal to the... Read more
Posted on 17 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japanese Prints 1600-1915
Download 2,500 Beautiful Woodblock Prints and Drawings by Japanese Masters (1600-1915) https://t.co/SNqzx6aVFv pic.twitter.com/StqLA2SBPm— Open Culture... Read more
Posted on 17 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Paganini Caprice No. 24 on Electric Bass [LingLing 40 Hours!]
At about 0:24 CharlesBerthoud mentions that he learned this piece by practicing 40 hours a day. That is impossible as a day only has 24 hours. Read more
Posted on 16 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is the Summit? Truth Or Metaphor?
John Branch, Only 44 people have reached the summit of all 14 of the world's highest mountains. Or maybe no one has. NYTimes, May 22, 2011. Read more
Posted on 16 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kim Stanley Robinson on the Game of Forms in The Ministry for the Future
The good folks at Crooked Timber recently hosted a symposium on Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future. Nine people each wrote a post about the book... Read more
Posted on 16 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Iris ZOOM!
Posted on 15 May 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Ramble: Machine Learning & the Brain, Word Illusion, FOOM, Models of the Mind
Machine learning, the brain and the future of software Friday’s post on Geoffrey Hinton’s assertion (deep learning is all we need) didn’t quite go the way I’d... Read more
Posted on 15 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Irises for a Saturday Morning
Posted on 15 May 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Brain Understands Tools as Extensions of the Body [Merleau-Ponty, Right?]
If you're using a tool you're familiar with, and using the tool properly (i.e. not grabbing a fork by the prongs), your brain will only say"hey, you're using... Read more
Posted on 15 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Making Sense of Raw Sensory Input
Work by @LittleBimble with @pfau, @pushmeet, Matko Bosnjak, Lars Buesing, Kevin Ellis, and Marek Sergot. (2/)— DeepMind (@DeepMind) May 14, 2021 The ability to... Read more
Posted on 15 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Dreaming a Process That Keeps Us Open to New Experience?
dreams are there to keep you from becoming too fitted to the model of the world https://t.co/C4GIMgCWjN— v (@pyroboyee) May 14, 2021 From the article: Hoel got... Read more
Posted on 14 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
American Art and Thought During the Cold War
George Scilabba, Free and Worldly, The Baffler, May 2021, reviewing Louis Menand, The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War. Read more
Posted on 14 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Reuben at the Malibu, with Purple Fries [Hallucinated City]
Posted on 14 May 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
