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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Kids and Music 5: Kwak DaKyung, Jazz Trumpeter [Born to Groove]
While I’m not sure it makes much sense to say that one musical instrument is more difficult to play than another getting a sound of, say, a violin or a piano... Read more
Posted on 02 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Yesterday's Walk in Hoboken
Posted on 02 May 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Cultures of Spaceflight [airplanes Vs. Rockets]
Nicholas Schmidle, Richard Branson Wanted to Beat Elon Musk to Space. It’s Been a Wild Ride. NYTimes, May 1, 2021. Elon Musk’s SpaceX had dozens of rocket... Read more
Posted on 02 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My First "conversation" in Japanese, with the Help of Google Translate
Google Translate rendered hashyy's first message as: When I hear her gentle and smooth performance It's very calming. And the sound of Henry's studio very good. Read more
Posted on 01 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Horgan’s The End of Science, a Reconsideration: All Wrapped up and Ready to Go
A new working paper: No End in Sight: John Horgan’s End of Science, Redux. Download at: Academia:... Read more
Posted on 01 May 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Replication Collides with "Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow"
Over at Ulrich Schimmack's Replicability-Index, A Meta-Scientific Perspective on “Thinking: Fast and Slow”, December 20, 2020. Read more
Posted on 30 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Things That Exist [I'll Take Object-oriented Ontology for $300.]
Posted on 30 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Analyze This! Another Seinfeld Bit: The Arrogance of Life Cereal
It’s time to look at another bit from Jerry Seinfeld’s new book, Is This Anything? (Simon Schuster, 2020). I am going to use a different format from the one... Read more
Posted on 29 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why is AI So Damn Hard?
New paper by me: "Why AI is Harder Than We Think". https://t.co/kfhr85Gb9U Feedback is welcome! pic.twitter.com/dzp8qouE7h— Melanie Mitchell (@MelMitchell1)... Read more
Posted on 28 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kids and Music 4: Born to Groove @3QD [a Three Step Plan]
My most recent 3 Quarks Daily piece is up: Born to Groove: Up from Mud and Back to Our Roots. It’s about music, more specifically, children and music. Read more
Posted on 28 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Horgan’s The End of Science, a Reconsideration, Part 6: A Million Points of Ligh...
Twenty-five years ago, in The End of Science, John Horgan argued that science is spinning its wheels, that there are no more “cataclysmic” insights to be had,... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Purple Dialectics, the Urban Pastoral [Matisse]
Posted on 27 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Origins of the Alphabet in the Levant, a Recent Discovery at Tel Lachish
From Victor Mair in Language Log. Candida Moss, Archaeologists Think They’ve Found Missing Link in Origin of the Alphabet, The Daily Beast, Updated Apr. 25, 202... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Whatever Infrastructure Is, We Want More [and We Want It Now]
Eric Klinenberg, Infrastructure Isn’t Really About Roads. It’s About the Society We Want. NYTimes, April 26, 2021. The Republican criticism is disingenuous:... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flowers Red Yellow Purple Orange White
Posted on 26 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Oh Why Oh Why Don’t Critics Describe the Text Itself? [deaf, Dumb, and Blind,...
I was looking through the most recent volume of NLH and came across an essay that had description in the title, not once, but twice. Read more
Posted on 26 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Coming Attractions: Our Future AI Overlords, NOT
Had so much fun watching this students' #unessay project, which uses the Sims to think through some of the questions about AI we discussed this semester—her... Read more
Posted on 26 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Analyze This! A Bit from Seinfeld’s Book “Is This Anything?”
Jerry Seinfeld’s published a new book, Is this Anything?, in which he publishes every joke he’s ever written, from first to last. As you may know. Read more
Posted on 24 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken, on the North Side of Town
Posted on 24 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Once Again, Time to Sort Things out [music, Phil of Science, Jokes, Description]
Thinking is tough. And when you are interested in a variety of things, it gets confusing. How do you keep all the balls in the air? Read more
Posted on 24 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
