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 ( 6522 )
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Xanadu Swingers
Granted, there's that line about the woman wailing for her demon lover, still, I doubt this is what Coleridge had in mind. If you're curious, here's a link... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Surrogates
Posted on 25 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fictional Commitments – Star Trek DS9 S2 E16: Shadowplay [Media Notes 4]
From the opening of the Wikipedia plot summary: Dax and Odo detect an unusual particle field emanating from a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, so they beam down... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Should We Do Away with the Categories of Linnaean Classification in Biology?
Christie Wilcox, What’s in a Name? Taxonomy Problems Vex Biologists, Quanta Magazine, June 24, 2019. arl Linnaeus was probably not the first scientist to realiz... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Helicopter, Cranes, Trees, Sky, the City
Posted on 24 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Literacy and the Human Mind/brain
From "Culture shapes the brain: How reading changes the way we think": Reading and writing is something most of us take for granted. Read more
Posted on 24 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lost Worlds at 3QD, Rider Haggard to Anthony Bourdain
I’ve published another article at 3 Quarks Daily: Up-River! The adventure of reality from Haggard to Conrad to Coppola to Bourdain Think of what’s happened in... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Mind of the Octopus
Yes, you have the right, mind, of an octopus. Why not? Amia Srinivasan review two recent books in "The Sucker, the Sucker!", London Review of Books, 17 Septembe... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Welcome to the Artificial Intelligence Bullshit-industrial Complex."
Mike Mallazzo, The BS-Industrial Complex of Phony A.I., Medium, June 12, 2019: The core feature of a B.S.-industrial complex is that every member of the... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japanese Fireflies
Long Exposure of Fireflies in a forest in Japan (Photo: Kei Nomiyama) pic.twitter.com/QdA3U6WfpA — 41 Strange (@41Strange) June 22, 2019 A frame-grab from Ninja Read more
Posted on 22 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Brain-to-brain Synchrony in the Classroom
Dikker et al., 2017, Brain-to-Brain Synchrony Tracks Real-World Dynamic Group Interactions in the Classroom, Current Biology 27, 1375–1380May 8, 2017... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
17 Versions of "Summertime"
A look at 17 versions of George Gershwin's "Summertime." https://t.co/kqUpKEC0hn pic.twitter.com/2xew59ndbv — Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) June 22, Read more
Posted on 22 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Rare African Flower, Saved
Here's another post about Rider Haggard, also from The Valve, from 28 May 2009. Like She (1986) it too centers on a exotic white race at the heart of Africa... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Emotion, the Final Frontier of AI?
Meredith Somers, Emotion AI, explained, March 8, 2019. Emotion AI is a subset of artificial intelligence (the broad term for machines replicating the way... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Rider Haggard’s She Taught in University, Either at the Undergraduate Or...
It certainly wouldn’t be taught under a rubric based on the premise that that students must study the (very) best narratives. That justification may have reigne... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Politics of Order in Informal Markets: Evidence from Lagos
A paper by Shelley Grossman, June 18, 2019, forthcoming at World Politics. Abstract Property rights are important for economic exchange, but in much of the worl... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: More Flowers
Posted on 21 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On Finding Donkey Kong Transistors in a MOS 6502 Microprocessor Chip – Whoops!...
A couple of days ago I posted a conversation with Rodney Brooks on the limitations of the computing metaphor as a vehicle for understanding the brain. Read more
Posted on 21 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has the Computer Metaphor for the Mind Run out of Steam?
In May of this year John Brockman hosted one of those high-class gab fests he loves so much. This one was one the theme of Possible Minds (from this book). Read more
Posted on 19 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Chalmers Tells Us How Computers Will Eclispe is in the Future – Aka Where...
Prashnath Ramakrishna interviews David Chalmers for the NYTimes: D.C.: Deep learning is great for things we do perceptually as human beings — image... Read more
Posted on 18 June 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY