Bbenzon
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 ( 6405 )
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Stanley Fish, Machine and Mechanism, and the Poverty of His Intentionalist Searc...
Over on the Humanist Discussion Group we’ve been examining Stanley Fish’s criticisms of, for the most part, computational criticism (which he frames as a... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Things Are (getting) Too Complicated
In the past few months I've been getting this vague sense that "things are too complicated." It just comes to me, this vague and weak feeling and this indistinc... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Outline for Catch-22, I Wonder If It's Ring-form
Joseph Heller’s Handwritten Outline for Catch-22, One of the Great Novels of the 20th Century https://t.co/vm2hRHyHhd pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Paragraphs on Postmodernism
John Nerst, Postmodernism vs. The Pomoid Cluster, Areo, June 30, 2018. There is this, by way of initial definition: Postmodernism is more complicated than it... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Monolingual elicitation–How Do You Learn a Language from Someone with Whom You...
It's one thing to figure out a foreign language if you are working with an informant who shares some language with you. In that case you can use the shared... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Implementation and Ontological Pluralism
Yesterday I put up a short post containing a conversation between Daniel Kaufman and Massimo Pigliucci about ontology. Toward the end Pigliucci suggested that w... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pluralism: Multiple Ontologies = Arenas of Abundance?
Near the end of this discussion, Massimo Pigliucci argues for a "plurality of ontologies" (c. 1:06:25). He suggests four (c. 1:09:28): 1) physical objects, 2)... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Immigration & Vermont Farm Families [#ICE]
"Estrellita": a powerful animated film about immigration, #ICE , and #Vermont: https://t.co/9Q4H1bmuP5Created by Middlebury College students, staff, and faculty... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Mayor Says Muslims Are an Asset to Jersey City
While the president has demonized Muslims, we know from living in #JerseyCity (the most diverse city in the US) a strong Muslim community is a great part of... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
McCulloch, Computers, and New Forms of Abstraction
Leif Weatherby, Digital Metaphysics: The Cybernetic Idealism of Warren McCulloch, The Hedgehog Review, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring 2018) McCulloch never thought the... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Oh Woe Are the Humanities, Or, What Becomes of Moral Education in an Age of...
Pual Reitter and Chad Wellmon, Melancholy Mandarins: Bloom, Weber, and Moral Education, The Hedgehog Review, Fall 2017. I've snipped from paragraphs from the... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Electric Elephants @3QD, Disney’s Dumbo
Disney’s been doing live-action remakes of many of its animated features. It released its second remake of The Jungle Book in 2016 and will be releasing a remak... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nationalist Narcissism
National Narcissism: "Citizens of 35 Countries Overestimate Their Nation's Role in World History." https://t.co/nI5FNAEZul pic.twitter.com/mc3ApkQXO8 — Rolf... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What's Coming up in AI in 10 Years?
An interview with Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle. On the limitations of AI: AI systems can make limited black... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Five Glimpses of Strange in Black and White
Posted on 22 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fishy Business – A Mathophobe Constructs a Straw Man [#DH]
Stanley Fish has just published a piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Stop Trying to Sell the Humanities”, (June 17 2018). Read more
Posted on 22 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
WTF? Melania's Jacket–who's the Audience and What's She Saying to Them?
Melania's jacket: I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?Melania's spox: "It's a jacket. There was no hidden message.”Trump: There's a hidden message to the Fake News... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Apes with 'language' Skills, Koko Has Died
"Koko — the gorilla known for her extraordinary mastery of sign language, and as the primary ambassador for her endangered species — passed away yesterday... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Facial Recognition in Humans and Chimps
Kret ME, Tomonaga M (2016) Getting to the Bottom of Face Processing. Species-Specific Inversion Effects for Faces and Behinds in Humans and Chimpanzees (Pan... Read more
Posted on 20 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Odors Are Perceived the Same Way by Hunter-gatherers and Westerners
In Phys.org: Previous research has shown the hunter-gatherer Jahai are much better at naming odors than Westerners. They even have a more elaborate lexicon for... Read more
Posted on 18 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY