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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Thinking About Kisangani 2150, a Possible Style
If I’m going to write Kisangani 2150 I’m going to need a voice to do so, a style. I was looking around on my hard drive and came across this fragment from an... Read more
Posted on 31 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
By 3,000 Years Ago the Planet Had Been “largely Transformed by...
James Gorman, Humans Dominated Earth Earlier Than Previously Thought, NYTimes, August 29, 2019: Humans substantially altered the planet much earlier than... Read more
Posted on 30 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some New Savanna Stats, Top Posts, and a Mystery
Of course, I do keep track of stats here at New Savanna. This is a graph of all time views: Notice GINORMOUS spike for (roughly) 2018. Read more
Posted on 30 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lessons Learned at Sea: Compromise, Tolerance, Mutual Aid [NY2140]
Andrew Revkin had an interesting oped in the NYTimes yesterday (29 Aug 2019), Greta Thunberg and the Lessons of the Sea. He explains: "n 1978, when I was 22, si... Read more
Posted on 30 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Experiments in Purple
But I tell you, I REALLY like this one: That's the one that got me thinking about purpling photos. Read more
Posted on 30 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Social Change in New York 2140 [revolution Revised and Revisited]
I’ve been thinking about New York 2140 and about social change, as that’s what’s at the heart of the book. How’d Kim Stanley Robinson engineer it? Read more
Posted on 29 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Call for the Study of Machine Behavior
Iyad Rahwan et al., Machine Behavior, Nature 568, 477-486 (2019). Abstract: Machines powered by artificial intelligence increasingly mediate our social,... Read more
Posted on 29 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dave Chappelle is a Genius [Media Notes 10]
I just watched another Dave Chappelle special on Netflix: The Age of Spin: Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium. It was of course brilliant. Among... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hollis Robbins and Tyler Cowen on Uncle Tom's Cabin
Tyler Cowen interviews Hollis Robbins, who is a dean at Sonoma State University. (She also studied and worked with Dick Macksey at Johns Hopkins). She's an... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Marketplace is Primarily About Cooperation and Only Secondarily About...
Paul Rubin, The Capitalist Paradox: How Cooperation Enables Free Market Competition, Truth on the Market, 21 August 2019. The final point, and what ties it all... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mechanism
Posted on 27 August 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Into the Future: From Tyler Cowen Through Kim Stanley Robinson to Kisangani 2150
Once I’d finished Tyler Cowen’s The Great Stagnation I decided to take a look at his next book: Tyler Cowen. Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age... Read more
Posted on 27 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fire in the Amazon, Climate Change, and the Limits of National Sovereignty
Quinta Jurecic, Who Owns the Amazon?, NYTimes, Aug. 27, 2019: The Amazon fires are a test case of sorts for how the climate crisis will strain the usefulness... Read more
Posted on 27 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Views from the Table Top [Malibu Diner]
Posted on 26 August 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Who'd Have Thought, Consumer Culture is Killing Us. Time to Reset National and...
Tim Wu, The American Economy Is Creating a National Identity Crisis, NYTimes, Aug. 26, 2019: Since the 1980s, American economic policy has insisted on the... Read more
Posted on 26 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Coal in Asia
Asia digs up and burns three-quarters of the world’s coal. On “The Intelligence” @MSLJeconomist explains what might make the region kick its habit https://t. Read more
Posted on 26 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
World Literature–isn't That What Macksey Taught?
Spence Lee Lenfield, A World of Literature, Harvard Magazine, October 2019. Most scholars define themselves as specialists in one or two centuries of one or... Read more
Posted on 25 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Cold War Politics Forged to the Doctrine of Scientific Neutrality
Michael D. Gordon reviews Audra J. Wolfe, Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science, in the Boston Review, August 21, 2019. In her... Read more
Posted on 24 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Return of Shaky Cam – Livin' for the Night
Posted on 24 August 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Geography and Psychology, Distance from the Equator
Evert Van de Vliert, Paul A. M. Van Lange. Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond. Perspectives on... Read more
Posted on 24 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
