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 ( 7606 )
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How Do We Think Together? [Tyler Cowen]
Tyler Cowen has a very interesting post today (April 9, 2025): Why not inquire together more? He sets things up by quoting Robin Hanson. Read more
Posted on 09 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Strange Hoboken Creatures
Posted on 08 April 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Sabrina Hossenfelder Looks at Claude 3.5 Haiku and Discovers That It Lacks...
In this video Hossenfelder examines a paper recently published by Anthropic: On the Biology of a Large Language Model. She has a number of interesting... Read more
Posted on 08 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why the Big Money Boys Let Trump Pull the Wool Over Their Eyes
Michelle Goldberg, Why Did So Many People Delude Themselves About Trump? New York Times, April 7, 2025: Donald Trump’s 2024 election sent many finance types int... Read more
Posted on 08 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Can There Be (sexual) Pleasure and Freedom in Bondage?
A month ago, I mentioned Fifty Shades of Grey in a post about expressions of eroticism. As you may know, the novel centers on an evolving BDSM (bondage,... Read more
Posted on 07 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Yesterday's Photo Walk, Including Cherry Blossoms!
Posted on 07 April 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Epilepsy and AI: From Seizure Prediction to Personalized Medicine
Majd A. AbuAlroba, Adham Itbaishab, Boulenouar Mesraouaa, Unlocking new frontiers in epilepsy through AI: From seizure prediction to personalized medicine,... Read more
Posted on 07 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Culture and Point of View: Differences Between Westerners and East Asians
R.E. Nisbett, T. Masuda, Culture and point of view, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 100 (19) 11163-11170,... Read more
Posted on 07 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude Identifies Longwood Gardens from Three Photographs
Sometimes when I ask Claude to describe some photo it (what’s Claude’s pronouns?) identified a particular structure or place, as in this view from a New York... Read more
Posted on 06 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Letter to Mary Douglas About God, Religion, and Music
I’m in the process of thinking through my next column for 3 Quarks Daily. I’ve given it a provisional title: “My New-Found Patriotism: Vietnam, the Draft,... Read more
Posted on 06 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Selfie Madness
The New York Times has an op-ed about selfies (through the ages). I've taken a bunch of them myself. Here's a Flickr album of my selfies. Read more
Posted on 06 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.7 Describes Psychedelic Marilyn
In all the other posts in my “Claude Describes” series I’ve had Claude describe a photograph or photographs that I’ve taken. This time it’s something... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pansies
Posted on 05 April 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Using Machine Learning to Measure CEO Depression
Cheng, S.-Y. and Golshan, N.M. (2025), Silent Suffering: Using Machine Learning to Measure CEO Depression. Journal of Accounting Research, 63: 689-767.... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why This Obsession with IQ? [It's as American as Apple Pie.]
Amanda Hess, What Is Elon Musk’s IQ? NYTimes, Apr. 5, 2025. FWIW estimates put Musk's IQ between 100-110 on the low end and 155. But we don't really know becaus... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Humans Learn New Chess Concepts from AlphaZero
L. Schut, N. Tomašev, T. McGrath, D. Hassabis, U. Paquet, B. Kim, Bridging the human–AI knowledge gap through concept discovery and transfer in AlphaZero... Read more
Posted on 04 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: An Act of Quite Despiration, Leavened with Bacon
Posted on 04 April 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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If No Longer America, Then What Nation Or Nations Will Answer the Calls of...
I was raised believing that America was the greatest country in the world, the home of the free and the brave, leader of the free world. I continued to believe... Read more
Posted on 04 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Short Note on the Importance of Fun [Homo Ludens]
Tyler Cowen has just interviewed economic historian Sheilagh Ogilvie on a variety of topics: ...the economic impacts of historical pandemics, the “happy story”... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lawrence Summers on Why Universities Must Resist Trump
Lawrence H. Summers, If Powerful Places Like Harvard Don’t Stand Up to Trump, Who Can? NYTimes, April 3, 2025. The U.S. government is trying to bludgeon... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
