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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Women of the Year: Middle-Aged and Getting More Action Than Ever Before
Mireille Silicoff, Why Gen X Women Are Having the Best Sex, NYTimes, 2025. A whole new cultural type seems to have landed. It feels worlds away from the... Read more
Posted on 11 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Line in the Sand: Ontologically Restricted Vs. Ontologically Open AIs
I propose that we classify AIs into two general categories: ontologically restricted and ontologically open. Ontologically open AIs stay within the ontologies... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is It About Depicting Sex in Writing? From Shared Knowledge to Common...
Just around the corner at 3 Quarks Daily, Gary Borjesson had an interesting post about love: Can Love Last? A (mostly) encouraging story about the fate of... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Clue About the Mind: “Is-A” Sentences
I'm bumping this post from 2011 to the top of the queue. Why? Because it is about the relationship between word order in sentences and order in the process of... Read more
Posted on 09 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gavriil Investigates a Basic Building Block of Music
From YouTube: Gavriil wearing father's t-shirt, comprehends the logic of the circle of fifth. At the end of the video Ivan is explaining for us (I actually... Read more
Posted on 09 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Balancing Things: I'm Cutting Back on Sunday Blogging
I'm working on a book and I've decided to devote Sunday to that. That means I'm not going to do any long-form blogging on Sundays. Read more
Posted on 09 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Over and Under
Posted on 08 February 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Why Didn’t Rome Have an Industrial Revolution? No, No, No, Not the Printing...
Back in August (2024) Tyler Cowen had a link to a paper, Romae Industriae, in which the author, Maxwell Tabarrock, posed the question in the title of this post. Read more
Posted on 08 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 Sonata Discusses a Photo Taken in Wayquay's "junktique" Store in...
It was a high traffic time of day, and Claude was in responding concise mode. But I’m not sure that’s why the responses were all so VERY short. I’ve been in... Read more
Posted on 08 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
About King Elon: Kara Says "Bullshit!" Scott Says "Stop the Bleeding!"
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway break down Elon Musk’s latest power moves, and how Democrats are starting to push back. They also dive into how Trump is floodin... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Winter Graffiti
Posted on 07 February 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The State of My Research on ChatGPT (& LLMs in General) • [mini-ramble]
I recently posted a long report to the web: ChatGPT: Exploring the Digital Wilderness, Findings and Prospects. That report summarizes and reflects upon the... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Time After Time, Sant Andreu Jazz Band
2023 TIME AFTER TIME ( Cahn / Stain ) arreglo Joan Monné SANT ANDREU JAZZ BAND dir Joan Chamorro featuring Luc Martin, trombon Koldo Munné, saxo baritono Lola... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Queen Anne's Lace
Posted on 06 February 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Gladiator II [Media Notes 155]
I watched Gladiator II on Netflix over the course of two days sometime last week. It was OK. Not sure it was as good as Gladiator, which I saw in a theater and... Read more
Posted on 06 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Federal Government Hoisted on Its Own Petard by #Elonald
Henry Farrell, Abraham L. Newman, Elon Musk Weaponizes the Government, Lawfare, February 5, 2025. It’s hard for politicians and journalists to grasp what Musk... Read more
Posted on 06 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunrise in Newport Harbor, Jersey City, December 2007
Posted on 05 February 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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From LLM Mechanisms to Ring-composition: A Conversation with Claude 3.5
I've published a new working paper. Title above, links, abstract, TOC, and Prefatory remarks below: Academia.edu: https://www.academia. Read more
Posted on 05 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump Proposes to Make Gaza “the Riviera of the Middle East!”
I kid you not. No, really, the Riviera of the Middle East. Writing in today’s New York Times, Peter Baker opens with: President Trump basked as Prime Minister... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Simon & Schuster: "Book Blurbs? Who Needs Them?" [the Inside Skinny]
Elisabeth Egan, What Are Book Blurbs, and How Much Do They Matter in Publishing? NYTimes, Feb. 4, 2025. The famously fractious publishing community seems to... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
