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 ( 7643 )
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Cecilia Chiang, “the Julia Child of Chinese Food”, Turns 100
Jeanne Lawrence, San Francisco Social Diary: A Century Of Good Taste — The Life of Culinary Icon Cecilia Chiang, New York Social Diary, June 30, 2020: EARLY... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
So You Want to Be an Auctioneer [the Art of the Chant]
Katy Vine, Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Master Auctioneer?, Texas Monthly, June 24, 2020. The auctioneer's chant: Live bid-calling is like a series of... Read more
Posted on 30 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Music Therapy, Synch, and Biorhythms
At YouTube: Equipped with both the skills of a computer engineer and the artistry of an accomplished musician, Grace Leslie has developed a technique to use... Read more
Posted on 29 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
If You Want to Be Happy, It Helps to Be Rich
Twenge, J. M., Cooper, A. B. (2020). The expanding class divide in happiness in the United States, 1972–2016. Emotion. Advance online publication.... Read more
Posted on 29 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Different Though They Are, David Graeber and Peter Thiel Share a Great Deal of...
This conversation took place in 2015. Peter Thiel is, as I'm sure you know, a venture capitalist (first outside investor in Facebook), a libertarian, a... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has Žižek Lost His Mind Or is He Just Lost in Space? [the Singularity Strikes...
Neither, actually. He’s just trying to make sense of nonsense. It’s not clear whether he’s managed to work his way free or remains entangled. Read more
Posted on 28 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Graeber on Fun at the Heart of Being [common Glad Impulse]
Except for the addendum, which is new, this post is from 2014. I'm bumping it to the top on general principle. David Graeber, most widely known as the author... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Diane Disney Talks About Her Dad, Walt
I've now turned this into a PDF file which you can download here: https://www.academia.edu/37815917/Mind-Culture_Coevolution_Major_Trans... In the early 1970s... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jim Keller: Moore's Law, Microprocessors, Abstractions, and First Principles | A...
Program notes: Jim Keller is a legendary microprocessor engineer, having worked at AMD, Apple, Tesla, and now Intel. He's known for his work on the AMD K7, K8,... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Whisps [Hallucinated City]
• • • • • counterpoint Read more
Posted on 26 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Reaction Videos, Quick Note [Media Notes 40]
I’ve been watching various reaction videos this last week, see examples in this post: Contemporary reactions to blue-eyed soul from 1965, Righteous Brothers... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What If Dark Matter Isn't Matter at All? What If Gravity Doesn't Work the Way...
Ramin Skibba, Does Dark Matter Exist? Aeon. In the early 1980s, the Israeli physicist Mordehai ‘Moti’ Milgrom questioned the increasingly popular dark matter... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
To Infinity and Beyond: Progress Studies @3QD [Progress Studies]
My latest article for 3 Quarks Daily is up: From Progress Studies to Progress: Through decadence and beyond. I sweated blood to write it and did three... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AGI and Superintelligence Vs. Humans on Mars – Such Different Kinds of...
Every once in awhile I find myself thinking about AGI (artificial general intelligence) and superintelligent machines: How long before they emerge and so on?... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problematic of Color [eye and Camera]
This is how the image came out of the camera, more or less: That's not what I saw when I took the picture. Not those colors. Now I've calibrated the image so... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mad Max: Fury Road – A Straussian Reading [Media Notes 39]
I’ve been thinking about Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film in the Mad Max franchise, and a film I liked very much. I’d like to offer an interpretation, perhap... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Phylogenesis of the Airplane
Side note: the B-2 bomber project, in the Northrop lineage of tailless flying wings, was managed at Northrop by a Belfast-born man, Thomas Desmond (Des) Arthurs. Read more
Posted on 23 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Helter Skelter Goes Orange
Posted on 22 June 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Authority in Interpretation, a Note Quick & Crude
What is the source of authority in academic literary criticism? Authority is in the text The critic interprets the text without reference to authorial... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is High Energy Physics a Case of Intellectual Decadence?
I mean "decadence" in Ross Douthat's sense of cultural exhaustion, the constant repetition of same old same old without anything new resulting. Read more
Posted on 22 June 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
