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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Evolutionary Dynamics of Complex Multiple Games
Happy to announce that my work on multiple game(s) dynamics with @GokhaleCS is now available online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal (and has... Read more
Posted on 04 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Urban Pastoral, Three Views
Posted on 03 August 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Transcendent Cognition, the Rise and Fall of Civilizations [#Progress_Studies]
The recent call for progress studies: Why did the Industrial Revolution start when it did? Why did Silicon Valley happen in California rather than Japan or... Read more
Posted on 03 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Miracle of Movies – Early 68 Mm Film
From Aeon: ‘It’s not so much being seduced by a story. It’s the thrill of seeing in itself.’ During the first film screenings in the 1890s, viewers marvelled... Read more
Posted on 02 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: More Flowers [#intensity]
Posted on 02 August 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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A Note About Kamasi Washington
I heard Kamasi Washington last night at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City. He rocked the place. He had an eight piece bank with jazz instrumentation: tenor sax... Read more
Posted on 02 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hold Your Horses, Quantum "supremacy" Isn't All That
Bursting the quantum computer bubble. From, who else? @skdh https://t.co/2dK1NAIGLc — John Horgan (@Horganism) August 2, 2019 Sabine Hossenfelder, Quantum... Read more
Posted on 02 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Representational Nature of the Earliest Human Engravings
Neuroimaging supports the representational nature of the earliest human engravings https://t.co/oeVHi9PFP2 pic.twitter.com/wLPman3sOy — A. Read more
Posted on 01 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Disney’s Fantasia Analyzed According to Cultural Rank
One of the trickiest aspects of the theory of cultural ranks is what happens in multirank societies. If a society is Rank 1, that’s all there is. Things change... Read more
Posted on 01 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tyler Cowen Talks with Kwame Anthony Appiah
Another in Cowen's series of conversations. A portfolio approach to religion: TYLER COWEN: Why are there so few atheists in Ghana? Read more
Posted on 31 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hollis Robbins on the Chinese Study of American Literature
Hollis Robbins, Dancing with Chains, BLARB: Blog//LA Review of Books, April 3, 2018: But we are in their gaze. And as Wesleyan president Michael Roth noted a fe... Read more
Posted on 31 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Call for Progress Studies
Why did the Industrial Revolution start when it did? Why did Silicon Valley happen in California rather than Japan or Boston? Human progress is understudied, an... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
“It Got Adults off Your Back” – Richard Macksey Remembered
The black page in Tristram Shandy On the evening of July 22 I learned that Dick Macksey had died earlier that day. He was a Hopkins legend. Everyone had said... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is AI a Power Hog?
Estimates of the amount of electrical power that AI will guzzle in future vary dramatically. I took a look for @techreview at why forecasting in the field is... Read more
Posted on 29 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The "friends"of Jeffrey Epistein – Those Who See Themselves Being Seen
David Patrick Columbia has a list, culled from the pages of New York magazine, over at New York Social Diary. After the list he offers these observations:... Read more
Posted on 29 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kisangani 2150, Some Materials for Plotting Routes to the Future
Back on July 10 I announced the (mere) possibility of writing a book that takes Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 as its point of departure. Call it Kisangan... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Importance of Accents in Bebop Solos – It's the Rhythm!
This is only one small bit from this essay by Shabaka Hutchings: When I was a student, my former saxophone teacher, Jean Toussaint, would stress to me the... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Energy-efficient Computing Using Nanowires
The human brain is by far the most impressive computing device known to science. Neural networks made of superconducting nanowires might come much closer to... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Black to the Future: Tade Thompson Wins the Arthur C. Clarke for Rosewater
Adam Roberts, From Black Panther to Tade Thompson: why Afrofuturism is taking over sci-fi, The Guardian, July 26, 2019. Last week Tade Thompson, a British-born... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Basics, RGB (+ B&W) – A Reminder
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Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
