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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Deploying Machine Learning Models in Real-life Applications
When talking to people who haven’t deployed ML models, I keep hearing a lot of misperceptions about ML models in production. Here are a few of them.(1/6) —... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Weeds and Graffiti [in an Urban Paradise]
Posted on 29 September 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Practical Fusion Power? [more Likely Than AGI]
Henry Fountain, Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is ‘Very Likely to Work,’ Studies Suggest, NYTimes, Sept. 29, 2020. Scientists developing a compact version of a... Read more
Posted on 29 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Tech is Over-hyped, So is There a Business Case of Musk's Neuralink?
In an article published in The Baffler, Shit for Brains, Danielle Carr does a good job of deflating Elon Musk's claims for Neuralink and of laying out the... Read more
Posted on 29 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ramble into Fall: Cultural Evolution, Economic Growth and Progress, Rambling...
Is the study of cultural evolution wrecked? I’ve been thinking and article comparing cultural with biological evolution for about a month or so. At the end... Read more
Posted on 28 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Intelligent is an Octopus, Or a (giant) Squid?
How intelligent is a cephalopod? 🤔Perhaps, not as much as claimed 👉Their renowned behavioural flexibility could be explained by putatively... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Moon as Seen from Earth Orbit
Full moon. From the International Space Station - NASA photoاِس چاند پر شعر... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Robo Pets for the Elderly [in a Time of Pandemic]
Paula Span, In Isolating Times, Can Robo-Pets Provide Comfort? NYTimes, Sept 26, 2020. “She’s more isolated in her room now,” Dr. Spangler said. “And she... Read more
Posted on 26 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Phases of the Moon [Photoshop]
Posted on 26 September 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Business Management from the School of Rock
The Beatles split up after a mere seven years at the top, while the Rolling Stones are still going. One startup flashed brightly and burned out; the other... Read more
Posted on 26 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ripples, Ducks, a Mast, Buildings
Posted on 25 September 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Gwern on the Implications of GPT-3 ["no Coherent Model of Why GPT-3 Was...
I'm not a regular follower of Gwern, though I did check out what he has to say about GPT-3 and poetry, so I only just now noticed this statement: ... Read more
Posted on 25 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Can the Study of Cultural Evolution Be Successfully Assimilated to a Framework...
New pre-print out now: Review and discussion of differences between cultural and biological evolution that are underrepresented in existing literature. Read more
Posted on 25 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Electric Empire [shaky-cam]
Posted on 25 September 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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TikTok and the Problems of Social Media in a Global Information Economy
John Herrman, What Happens When Americans Join the Global Internet, NYTimes, Sept. 22, 2020. In contrast to mounting political criticisms of, say, Facebook and... Read more
Posted on 24 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Prodigal Tech-bro in Search of Redemption
Maria Farrell, The Prodigal Techbro, The Conversationalist, march 5, 2020: This could almost be a response to The Social Dilemma, and maybe it is, though it... Read more
Posted on 24 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Can You Spot the Empire State Building? (It's Small, but Easy to Find.)
Posted on 24 September 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Toothlessness of Wokism
Arnold Kling, The movie Stay Woke, Sept. 23, 2020. Our synagogue had a virtual showing of the movie Stay Woke, a documentary made in 2016 about the Black Lives... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
American Spends More on Fossil Fuels Than on Defense
Tim Dickinson, Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending, Rolling Stone, May 8, 2019. The United States has spent more subsidizing fossil... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Golded Hogwash on Corporate Responsibility
I was skeptical. I didn’t think voluntary virtue would save us. I figured the plutes would just plute. pic.twitter.com/cs3W94pObs — Anand Giridharadas... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
