Bbenzon
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 ( 6400 )
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The Hallucinated City: Sandy + Seven
Posted on 30 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In the Case of Harold Bloom
Right, the measure of a text's greatness is its ability to attract dogmatic unsupported assertions. It's called richness. The more dogs that chase after a... Read more
Posted on 30 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rising Expectations...protests...progress?
De Tocqueville: actual progress fails to meet rising expectations resulting in unrest and even revolution. — Bill Benzon (@bbenzon) October 28, 2019 Tyler... Read more
Posted on 30 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
About Those California Wild Fires...
7. State's electricity system has been responding to all sorts of demands for all sorts of things. Equity, low rates, renewable energy, efficiency,... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Description and the Teleome, Part 2
To see why I'm bumping this seven year old post to the top of the queue, read its companion, linked in the first paragraph below. Read more
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Deep Learning, the Teleome, and Description
From seven years ago, I'm bumping this to the top because the topic is on my mind these days: Why do the human sciences need rich, and objective, descriptions o... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Does It Make Sense to See the California Blackouts as an Effect of Inequality, a...
I wonder how many of the executives (and board members?) who made this decision will feel the effects themselves? Two days ago Tyler Cowen had a post, The... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How We Move Reveals Who We Are: Movement Signatures
Gretchen Reynolds, Something in the Way We Move, NYTimes, Oct 23, 2019: Each of us appears to have a unique way of moving, a physical “signature” that is ours... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Retrograde Sentiments [found in a Demolished Building in Jersey City]
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is Computation? That is to Say, What Do I Mean by Computation? [putting...
As far as I know, the nature of computation is still under investigation. I’m not really qualified to or in fact interested in addressing the question in its... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Godzillas in Jersey City
Posted on 28 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Enchanted by Meaning – That’s Been the Fate of American Criticism, but Elsewhere?
Though, to be blunt, in my more polemical moods I’m inclined to think that “besotted” is a better word to characterize academic literary criticism’s engagement... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Value of Knowing That Something is Possible, Even If You Don't Yourself...
Richard Jones, Rock climbing and the economics of innovation: I think one kind of knowledge is particularly important in climbing – and maybe in other areas of... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kurtz as MacGuffin, Or: Why Trash Him Before We Meet Him?
In an earlier post about Heart of Darkness I said: But, and this is crucial, he wanted us have a précis of Kurtz’s story before we finally meet him in the last... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lakota America – Beyond Little Bighorn and Beyond Wounded Knee, Still Vital
Writing in the NYTimes Parul Sehgal reviews Pekka Hamalainen, Lakota America, A New History of Indigenous Power, (Yale 2019): All nations deserve to have their... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Protests Have Been on the Rise Since the 1950s, but Success Rate Has Been Doing...
Max Fisher and Amanda Taub, The Interpreter, NYTimes, Oct. 26 2019: The world is changing in ways that make people likelier to seek sweeping political change... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Cheers for The Kominsky Method, and for Grace and Frankie as Well [Media...
Why? Because they’re about old people, and they depict us [who me? old? well I’m 71] as having interesting and tricky lives, and as growing and looking ahead.... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Computational Envelope of Language – Once More into the Breach
Time to saddle-up and once more ride my current hobby horse, or one of them at least. In this case, the idea that natural language is the simplest aspect of... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Martin Luther King: "On the Importance of Jazz"
Listen to these clips as read by artists in the San Francisco Bay area (2 minutes): From Open Culture: As jazz musicians embraced the movement, so the movement... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Politics on YouTube: Rar-right Viewership Peaked in 2017
Kevin Munger Joseph Phillips, A Supply and Demand Framework for YouTube Politics, Preprint, October 1, 2019. Abstract: Youtube is the most used social... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY