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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On the Relevance of Intellectual History for Understanding Present Events (AI)
Jim Olds, The Chronology Problem, Mar. 12, 2026. We are surprisingly bad at knowing when things began. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, partly... Read more
Posted on 15 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Electrochemical Machine Has 100 Trillion Connections in a Volume the Size o...
That one neuron connects to about 7,000 others. Your brain has 86 billion of them. Do the math and you get somewhere around 100 trillion connections inside... Read more
Posted on 15 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Not So Long Ago During the Winter
Posted on 14 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Three for 3QD: Man-Machine Collaboration, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, American...
Generally when I post an article to 3 Quarks Daily I will follow up with a post here at New Savanna linking to the 3QD piece and extending or commenting on... Read more
Posted on 14 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: What’s a Tablescape?
Just what the name suggests, like a landscape only on a table top. I’ve been taking photos of my meals and posting them here since September of 2018. Read more
Posted on 13 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AI as Coder, Reports from the Trenches
Clive Thompson, Coders Coded Their Job Away. Why Are So Many of Them Happy About It? NYTimes, Mar. 12, 2026. He and Brennan-Burke, who is 32, are still... Read more
Posted on 12 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Maybe the AI Industry is Waking Up, at Long Last
Two Turing-class AI researchers just raised $2B in three weeks to bet against every LLM company on the planet.Fei-Fei Li closed $1B for World Labs on February... Read more
Posted on 11 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Which One Doesn't Belong? [Hint: Yum]
Posted on 11 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Why Trump's Corruption is the Single Most Disturbing Thing About His Presidency...
A friend recently asked me for critiques of Trump’s performance. The first thing that came to mind was his corruption and, though I went on to say some other... Read more
Posted on 11 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Rush to Money and IP Theft in the AI World
This level of desperation perfectly encapsulates the "monetization crisis" of the current AI paradigm. We’ve seen staggering capital injection, yet the path to ... Read more
Posted on 11 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Contemplating French Toast – Yummmm.....
Posted on 10 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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AI and the American Millennial Imagination
This morning I had a long conversation with ChatGPT 5.2 Auto. We started with the varied role of the Messiah in Jewish thought, then zeroed in on Chabad. From... Read more
Posted on 10 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adventures in Tablescapes
Posted on 09 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The World Mostly Gets Changed Through Collective Effort.
David Marchese, Rebecca Solnit Says the Left’s Next Hero Is Already Here, NYTimes, Mar. 8, 2026. From the intro: As the old saw goes, the only constant is... Read more
Posted on 08 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Bit of Waffle + a Tablescape
Posted on 08 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Living Human Brain Cells Play DOOM on a CL1
Andrew Paul, Computer run on human brain cells learned to play ‘Doom’, Popular Science, Mar. 2, 2026. A biocomputer powered by lab-grown human brain cells has... Read more
Posted on 08 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Confluence of Crazies: The Pentagon and the Tech Bros
Robert Wright, Iran and the immortality of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, Nonzero Newsletter, Mar. 6, 2026. I'm not going to try to summarize the first... Read more
Posted on 07 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Humanitarian Concern Became Perverted into a Justification for War [Trump...
Amanda Taub, How Good Intentions Helped Pave Trump’s Road to Iran, NYTimes, March 7, 20226. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their... Read more
Posted on 07 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunrise Before Breakfast
Posted on 07 March 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Machining World First Transparent Hydraulic Press Tools
YouTube: Welcome to another exciting episode of Beyond the Press, where we take you behind the scenes of creating our unique transparent tools for our 150 ton... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
