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 ( 7640 )
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Abstract Words in Prose Fiction [#DH]
Just posted the talk I gave last week to King's College, with the text synced to the slides: https://t.co/zLNOaqhu7WIt's a summary of my dissertation work on... Read more
Posted on 24 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Of Telomeres, Senescence, Cancer, Laboratory Mice, Evolutionary Biology, and...
This is a long podcast (over two hours), and it takes awhile to get off the ground, but it's worth your attention. About the podcast: All of our Mice are Broken. Read more
Posted on 22 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Louis Armstrong on the Cover of Time Magazine
Jazz legend Louis Armstrong became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of @TIME magazine #OTD in 1949. The 5-page article on Satchmo, titled “Louis... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Egalitarian Proclivities of Louis Armstrong
M.H, Miller, Louis Armstrong, The King of Queens, NYTimes, 20 Feb 2020: Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901, dropped out of school as a child and was a... Read more
Posted on 20 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Illustrated Japanese Books from 1600-1912
1,000+ Historic Japanese Illustrated Books Digitized Put Online by the Smithsonian.From the Edo Meji Eras (1600-1912) https://t.co/ygjmh7pMQe pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 20 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Surveillance Tech is Deeply Flawed [[Surprise! Surprise!]]
Charlie Warzel, All This Dystopia, and for What?, NYTimes 20 Feb 2020. The above examples all represent a different, equally troubling brand of dystopia — one... Read more
Posted on 19 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Romantic Kissing is Not Universal
Fran Barone, eHRAF Highlights, July 17, 2015: From pop culture to evolutionary psychology, we have come to take kissing for granted as universally desirable... Read more
Posted on 14 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Conjunctions: Transportation and Graffiti [Jersey City]
Posted on 13 February 2020
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Bernie Sanders Isn't a Socialist
Paul Krugman in the NYTimes: The thing is, Bernie Sanders isn’t actually a socialist in any normal sense of the term. He doesn’t want to nationalize our major... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has "civilization" Entered a Phase of Decadence?
That's what Ross Douthat argues in his new book, The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success, which Damon Linker reviews in The Week,... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pandemics and Cooperation Between Nation-states
Thomas Bollyky and Samantha Kiernan, No Nation Can Fight Coronavirus on Its Own, Lawfare, February 12, 2020: "Infectious diseases were the first global problem... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rodney Brooks on AI and Robotics
As you may know, Rodney Brooks is a pioneering robotics researcher and entrepreneur (his company markets the Roomba) who once headed the AI lab at MIT. He has... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Spain is Now the World's Healthiest Country
Maybe it’s something in the gazpacho or paella, as Spain just surpassed Italy to become the world’s healthiest country https://t. Read more
Posted on 12 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Music Versus Algorithms
Alexis Petridis reviews Ted Gioia's current book, Music: A Subversive History: In terms of scope, well, put it this way: it starts out talking about a bear’s... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This is Your Brain on Art
Aesthetic value in your brain is similar to in a deep neworkVisual stream shows input visual art transformation of low- to high-level features pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 11 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fallen Angel
When I saw this at night I wondered what it was, perhaps some strange art project? When I came back the next day I realized that it was simply a decorative ange... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Howard Rheingold on Democracy and Online Media
Howard Rheingold, Democracy is losing the online arms race, February 4, 2020. Opening paragraphs: Democracy is threatened by an arms race that the forces of... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wild Child
Cressida Cowell, I Had a Gloriously Wild Childhood. That’s Why I Wrote ‘How to Train Your Dragon.’ NYTimes: The hill was covered with strange grassy mounds abou... Read more
Posted on 08 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
“Undecidability, Uncomputability and the Unity of Physics. Part 1.”
That's the title of a post by Tim Palmer at Backreaction. Here's the opening: Our three great theories of 20th Century physics – general relativity theory,... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Life in the Ocean Depths, Minerals Too
Wil S. Hylton, History's Largest Mining Operation Is About to Begin, The Atlantic, January/February 2020. As the title indicates, the article is primarily... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2020 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
