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 ( 7846 )
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Being the Ricardos is Wonderful in Its Virtuoso Juggling of Recollection, Life,...
With Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnez, Being the Ricardos (2021) does a delightful job of telescoping events though three time... Read more
Posted on 25 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Overlap Between Cognition and Emotion
that EA does not stem fully from affective mechanisms distinct from domain-general cognition. Instead, those with high EA were more cognitively reflective... Read more
Posted on 25 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neuromophic Computing: Electrochemical and Optical
Skynet, here we come 🤯https://t.co/6Ln3i2Opes— the viking (Gunnar Blohm) (@GunnarBlohm) February 23, 2022 Btw, optical networks are another fascinating... Read more
Posted on 23 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Shells, Sand, with Holes
Posted on 23 February 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Jaws: Misogyny and Violence
Dan Rubey’s reading of Jaws is the most interesting one that I’ve read: Dan Rubey, The ˆ in the mirror, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, no. 10-11... Read more
Posted on 23 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Grandfather’s Diary: WWII, Ulysses, and Proust
I bumping this to the top of the queue as Putin marches on Ukrania. This post contains some excerpts from my Grandfather's diary as he writes about news of the... Read more
Posted on 22 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Using AI (reinforcement Learning) to Train a Magnetic Controller for Tokamak...
Degrave, J., Felici, F., Buchli, J. et al. Magnetic control of tokamak plasmas through deep reinforcement learning. Nature 602, 414–419 (2022).... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kung Fu Yoga: Jackie Chan Does Belt and Road [Media Notes 67]
I was looking over Amazon Prime Video and spotted Kung Fu Yoga. “Strange title,” I thought, but it’s a Jackie Chan film and relatively recent, 2017. It’s... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beethoven and Jazz
We start with Beethoven's last piano sonata, No. 32, Op. 111, which was considered all but unplayable for a long time. See this post, Beethoven in Memphis [on... Read more
Posted on 20 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mental Speed Slows Down After 60
von Krause, M., Radev, S.T. Voss, A. Mental speed is high until age 60 as revealed by analysis of over a million participants. Nat Hum Behav (2022).... Read more
Posted on 19 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problematic of Jaws in a Nutshell
I’ve been thinking about how to revise my original post about Jaws. I think the content will be much the same, but I’m considering one major restructuring. Read more
Posted on 19 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is the Ottawa Trucker's Protest a Bit of the Metaverse That Has Leaked into the...
James McLeod, The Ottawa protest is an online subculture flexing in the physical world, The Line, Feb. 18, 2022. Forget about the Metaverse that Silicon Valley... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: I Love a Parade [Hallucinated City]
Posted on 18 February 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Jameson Offers a Marxist Reading of Jaws
Fredric Jameson is perhaps the premier American Marxist literary and cultural critic of the last half century. Let’s take a look at what he said about Jaws in... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nina Paley Does the Apocalypse
The @internetarchive was the source for this perfect music I found for the https://t.co/u1PXoMxWEV trailer video. https://t.co/yPprTMQtsr— Nina Paley... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sean Carroll Interviews Gary Marcus About AI and Common Sense
As you may know, Marcus is skeptical about the ability of (deep) learning approaches to go all the way. Here's one bit of the conversation: 0:11:58. Read more
Posted on 17 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Problems with Angus Fletcher’s Account of Neurons, Logic, and Narrative
A week or so ago a conversation on Twitter led me to this article: Angus Fletcher, Why Computers Will Never Read (or Write) Literature: A Logical Proof and a... Read more
Posted on 16 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A General Comment Concerning Arguments About Computers and Brains
Arguments about whether or not computers will ever match the powers of the human mind have been around for a long time. As far as I can recall the first such... Read more
Posted on 16 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Who's Your Favorite Billionaire?
Billionaires that majority of Democrats approve of: an entertainment celebrity, founder of the company that was found to engage in anticompetitive practices, an... Read more
Posted on 16 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japanese Jazz in Historical Perspective
@bbenzon see this?https://t.co/5S6NE2rylS— Citizen of Somewhere Else (@CitizenSE) February 14, 2022 The first three paragraphs of the linked article (which I... Read more
Posted on 15 February 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
