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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Welcome to Reality, Tyler; the AI’s Got Your Number: Further Notes on Revolution...
So, I finished reading the first chapter, “What Is Marginalism?”, of Cowen’s new monograph, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI... Read more
Posted on 29 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
No Kings! Hoboken & Jersey City
Posted on 28 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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A Bit of Conceptual Analysis: the Book-keeper and the Invisible Hand [MR-2b]
I’ve got a footnote to my earlier post on marginalism as a Rank 4 concept. During its explication, Claude made the following observation: The transition from... Read more
Posted on 28 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will the Iran War Change the World Like the Oil Shocks of the 1970s Did?
Jeff Sommer, The Oil Shocks of the ’70s Changed the World. Will the Iran War Do the Same? NYTimes, Mar. 28, 2026. In January 1974, my dad lent me his old... Read more
Posted on 28 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Yesterday: Before, During, and After Breakfast
Posted on 28 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Marginalism is a Rank 4 Idea, Along with Thermodynamics and Biological...
Yesterday I made a post about a passage that occurs very near the end of Tyler Cowen’s new monograph, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the... Read more
Posted on 28 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
New Adventures in Tablescapes
Posted on 27 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Tyler Cowen Has Thrown in the Towel and is Waiting for the Machines to Take Over.
Tyler Cowen has announced a new monograph, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution, which you can access here. You can... Read more
Posted on 27 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: 11th St. Flower Beds [first Flowers of the Year]
Posted on 27 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Trump's War is Heading into a Quagmire, and the Republicans Know It
Michelle Goldberg, Republicans Know This War Is Going Badly, NYTimes, Mar. 27, 2026. The article begins: It is not just Democrats in Congress who fear that... Read more
Posted on 27 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kinda' Hits You in the Eye, Doesn't It?
Posted on 26 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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From Grokking to a Mature Science of and an Engineering Discipline of LLMs
From this morning’s chat with Claude Sonnet 5.4 Extended. Immediately prior to this we had been discussing Piaget’s concept of reflective abstraction,... Read more
Posted on 26 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
LeWorldModel, LeWM (JEPAs)
đ¨ Holy shit... LeCun's team just cracked world models wide open.Everyone's obsessing over the next Claude update. Meanwhile Yann LeCun... Read more
Posted on 25 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Who Makes the Photo, the Subject Or the Photographer?
Of course it’s the photographer. I’m speaking somewhat metaphorically. Take a look at this photo: Rather striking, dramatic, no? That’s a photo where the subjec... Read more
Posted on 25 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Iran War, The Movie: Straight Outta Hormuz
Here's the story: 'Iran War - The Movie': On social media platforms near you, playing now. Watch viral video! Is the Iran war now turning into internet satire? Read more
Posted on 25 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
America’s New Chip Factory — $50B Disaster
This is a fascinating story about how Samsung set out to build a state of the art chip fab (fabrication facility) and the problems that bedeviled it. Without th... Read more
Posted on 25 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Tablescapes from the Bar at Turning Point {Be Kind}
Posted on 24 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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In Some Ways, Some Contexts, LLMs May Provide a Useful Model for Human Language
As I say down there in my interaction with Claude (Sonnet 4.6 Extended), once I’d been working with ChatGPT for a while I began to think that the mechanisms of... Read more
Posted on 24 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
First Sunrise Shoot of the Year
Posted on 24 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Trump’s Way: America, from Leader of the Free World to Biggest Thug on the Block
Carlos Lozada, The U.S. Is No Longer the Leader of the Free World, New York Times, March 24, 2026. We had a good run — some eight decades or so — but it is clea... Read more
Posted on 24 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
