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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I Like It, but It's out of Focus [RGB]
This is the kind of focus that keeps me thinking about what I'm doing. I like it. I like the colors, I like the textures. But it's out of focus. For some... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
FDR 2: War and Peace
Continuing commentary on politics at FDR SK8park in Philly. Stylistically, it's a roller. That is, the paint was applied with rollers rather than aerosol. This... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Alan Liu is Reading Beyond Literary Studies, Check 'em out
Journals I am reading now: Places (https://t.co/Hi9fg7VKdM), e-flux (https://t.co/ShkwAcdDdw), Scenario (https://t.co/FYrBOuT52O). Read more
Posted on 29 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
You See It Everywhere: Who's Flicking Whom? [Longwood Gardens, Outside Philly]
Posted on 28 December 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Politics on Display at FDR SK8park in Philadelphia [Friday Fotos]
THAT^ is why FDR exists, for the thrill and freedom of riding a skateboard. And THIS^ will give you a very rough idea of the scale of the place, which covers... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stagnation 1.4: Is the Cost of Ideation an Issue for Philosophy?
In the my first post in this series, Stagnation 1: The phenomenon and a simple-minded model with some remarks on search (pharmaceuticals) and process... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AlphaZero: Chess Belongs to the Machines, Now More Than Ever Before –...
Steven Strogatz in the NYTimes, 12.26.18. In the old days (1997) IBM's Deep Blue beat Kasparov: For better and worse, it played like a machine, brutally and... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
White Springs and Red Berrys, Longwood Gardens, 12.25.18
Posted on 27 December 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Is Cultural Change Driven by Your Peers Or, in Effect, Your Death and Theirs?
Stephen Vaisey, Omar Lizardo, Cultural Fragmentation or Acquired Dispositions? A New Approach to Accounting for Patterns of Cultural Change, Socius: Sociologica... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Once Again, What's Intelligence Anyhow?
A recent Twitter discussion got started like this: It should be added that the important findings regarding intelligence are among the most replicable and robus... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Currency of "theory"
Stephen Kearse, Wild Speculation Isn’t Worth Much. A ‘Theory,’ However..., NYTimes, 12.19.18: Whatever air of authority attaches to a “theory” is a relatively... Read more
Posted on 26 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Who Cares About the Damn Jetpack? What About a Four Day Work Week?
Tom Hodgkinson, Bring on the Four Day Working Week, The Idler, September 25, 2018: Back in the 1930s, economists, intellectuals and trade union leaders were... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Long Run of Cultural Evolution, a ‘return to the State of Nature’?
I’m told (or I’ve read), for I’ve not actually read him on this, the Marx believed that, through class conflict, history would move us to a regime where the... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dan Wang on Moore's Law [beyond Stagnation], with an Addendum on Entertainment
From Dan Wand, What I Learned in 2018: Moore’s Law turned from a neat backwards-looking observation into an obligation for the entire chips industry to keep... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
There is a Fold in the Fabric of Reality. (Traditional) Literary Criticism is...
I’ve been trying to write this post for over a year now, maybe two. It seems to me that the idea is simple enough. But as soon as I get into it, it grows and... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Deep Utility of Parties as Sites of Transformation
Alice Goffman, Go to More Parties? Social Occasions as Home to Unexpected Turning Points in Life Trajectories, Social Psychology Quarterly, First Published... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
I Think I’ve Figured out How [to/I] Think About Space Travel
A week ago I posted, Space Travel: What we have here is a failure of imagination. That was in response to a discussion of the topic at Crooked Timber, No... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Amazon Court
Josh Dzieza, Prime and Punishment: Dirty Dealing in the $175 Billion Amazon Marketplace, The Verge: Amazon’s judgments are so severe that its own rules have... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Note on Groundhog Day (the Movie)
I saw it when it came out in theaters and I’ve seen it on a small screen once or twice before. And I watched it again yesterday evening. I like it. I could... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: From Longwood Gardens December 2017
Posted on 21 December 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
