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
-
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 ( 7846 )
-
People Reason About Probabilities in a All-of-nothing (digital) Manner
Johnson, S. G. B., Merchant, T., Keil, F. C. (2019). Belief digitization: Do we treat uncertainty as probabilities or as bits? Journal of Experimental... Read more
Posted on 06 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A SK8 Park for Jersey City: How I Wrote a Report as an Investment in the Future
What I was doing when, 12 years ago I, wrote a report, Jersey City: from a Skate Park to the World, showed it to a number of people, including my councilman,... Read more
Posted on 06 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tools Used in Digital Humanities Research [#DH]
"Which #DigitalHumanities Tools Are Actually Used in Research?" – We got some answers: https://t.co/5Z0PSmFWhe pic.twitter.com/4lak98Wsdg — Frank Fischer... Read more
Posted on 06 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: City Lights [The Hallucinated City]
Posted on 06 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Some Informal Remarks on Jockers’ 3300 Node Graph: Part 1, “a Generic Time Trend...
For some time I’ve thought my intellectual mission was to examine “stuff” that has been developed through largely discursive and informal methods and bring it t... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hadar Aviram on Turley's Testimony Before the Judiciary Committee
[This is risible. The reason we are "mad" is precisely BECAUSE we have *overwhelming* evidence that Trump has sold out national security and the safety of our... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trees with Moss, Fungus, and Severed Limbs
Posted on 05 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Hybrid Genomes in Eukaryotes
#PLOSGenetics: Eukaryote hybrid genomes https://t.co/zwGiTHpqJM — Bill Benzon (@bbenzon) December 5, 2019 Runemark A, Vallejo-Marin M, Meier JI (2019)... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Description Via. Diagram
French artist Paul Sougy's stunning mid-century scientific diagrams of plants, animals, and the human body https://t.co/j9fiAzWPRk pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 04 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Those Pesky Memes: Theoretical Imagery as a Block to Progress in Thinking About...
What to I mean by “theoretical imagery”? I mean image schemas as the notion is used in, e.g., the cognitive metaphor notions of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Read more
Posted on 04 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
They Went (only) So Far : The Crown, S3 E7 Moondust [Media Notes 24]
The episode is framed by Apollo 11’s lunar landing. Was it profound? Not in any message one might distill from it, such messages would be as empty as those... Read more
Posted on 04 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Variations, A Couple of Drops of Ink Diffusing Through Water
It's very simple. You fill a tumbler, or some other suitable container, with water. Then drop a little ink into it and watch the ink diffuse, taking photos ever... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
I Was a Politically Incorrect Seven-year Old: Kowabunga Dude and “How”
So let me tell you about the Halloween costume I wore when I was seven. I was an Indian chief. My parents made the costume (they made all the Halloween... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This Whole Thread About German Pulps Before WWII is a Hoot and a Half
Okay, so.... the thing to remember is that Germany, like several other European countries, has a long tradition of serialized fiction. Read more
Posted on 02 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Today's Liberated Woman, a Dialectical Exchange Across Eons and Boundaries
Posted on 02 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Preserving Democracy: The Crown, S3 E5 Coup [Media Notes 23]
I’ve been watching The Crown, which I think is excellent. In episode five of season three Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, decided to devalue the pound. Read more
Posted on 02 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adaptation and Exaptation in Escaping Optimisation Traps in Cultural Evolution
One major goal in cultural evolution is to explain why human culture is cumulative and open-ended. However, much of the focus tends to be on processes of... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is a Reworked Social Media the New Jetpack of the Future?
That is to say, we're living in the Singularity and social media is its most visible and pervasive manifestation. But it's not working all that well, not for... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Irishman: Dark Forces in America from Top to Bottom, Again [Media Notes 22]
So...I watched it on Netflix, in two sittings. It was long, and slow. It was good, that’s what the reviews said, so it must be so. And it was. Read more
Posted on 01 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
SK8er's Gotta Fly Now
Posted on 30 November 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
