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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Strange Illumination
Posted on 02 December 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Vector Semantics, You Know: King - Man + Woman = Queen...
From MIT Technology Review, 2015: The easiest way to think about words and how they can be added and subtracted like vectors is with an example. The most... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
We Came, We Saw, We Conquered. [Tweet of the Day]
In six words or fewer, write a story about this photo... #amwriting #amreading #sixwordstory pic.twitter.com/GGikOoJLwR — Lacey London (@thelaceylondon) Novembe... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Emotion Among the Vikings as Revealed in Their Literature
From The Medieval Review, Melissa Elmes reviews Rikhardsdottir, Sif. Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts. Studies in Old Norse... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Four Questions in the Study of Cultural Evolution
One of these days I might write a post or two using these questions to compare and contrast existing proposals. At the moment I’m simply going to state my... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stagnation: Arnold Kling, "intangible Factors Are Important Determinants of...
Arnold Kling comments on a recent conversation between Paul Krugman and Tyler Cowen. One of the topics that came up was increasing returns. Read more
Posted on 01 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Importantce of Real-time Processing of Language
Erin S.Isbilen, Morten H. Christiansen, Nick Chater, It's about time: Adding processing to neuroemergentism, Journal of Neurolinguistics, Volume 49, February... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Outside in the Cold
That's from a graffiti battle that raged hot and heavy in Jersey City back in 2006 between Somer and a bunch of others. I tell a bit of that tale in this post,... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Meet the Pioneers [TALENT SEARCH] & a Home Run on Neural Nets Over Neural Nets
From the Pioneer blog (H/t Tyler Cowen): We’re excited to announce the winners of the first Pioneer Tournament. In the short 3 months since its launch, Pioneer... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Short Note on Cognitive Ranks
This is from section 2.1., “The Four Ages” of Chapter 2, “Ranks, Revolutions, and Paidias,” of David Hays, The Evolution of Technology Through Four Cognitive... Read more
Posted on 30 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Color Study, RGB Plus Amplifications and Inversions of Same
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Read more
Posted on 30 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Georgia Tech Imagining Brick-and-mortar 'storefront' Portals to Online Education
Lindsay McKenzie for Inside Higher Ed: Georgia Institute of Technology is considering creating brick-and-mortar "storefronts" for prospective and current... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Happens When Whites Become a Minority in the USA?
According to the NYTimes, the US Census Bureau projects that will happen in 2044 (but maybe it's 2042 or 2050). In a nation preoccupied by race, the moment... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kim Stanley Robinson on Why We're Earth-bound
Aslı Kemiksiz and Casper Bruun Jensen interview Kim Stanley Robinson. KSR: It has not been a program on my part, but just a matter of taking it one story a... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cognitive Evolution Over the Longue Durée: Ranks, Cities, and Rankshift
Over the span of roughly 20 years David Hays and I worked on a theory of cultural ranks, the underlying matrix of cognitive systems that have evolved over the... Read more
Posted on 28 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Bowie in Nippon
David Bowie Memorialized in Traditional Japanese Woodblock Prints https://t.co/xzmVeyVPu0 pic.twitter.com/cAdNXyzms6 — Open Culture (@openculture) November 28, Read more
Posted on 28 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Virahanka-Fibonacci Numbers
Let’s stop teaching the bogus rabbit story that Fibonacci told. These numbers originally came from poetry and music! pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 28 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Physicist Kip Thorne on the Importance of Collaboration in Science
Sean Carroll interviews Kip Thorne, who got the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics, along with Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish for the detection of gravitational waves. Read more
Posted on 27 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Web of Knowledge: A Model of Cognition from My 1978 Dissertation
I’ve now uploaded Chapter 4 of my dissertation, “The Web of Knowledge” to Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/37862208/The_Web_of_Knowledge. I did my... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Receptive Multilingualism, How Fascinating!
Victor Mair, at Language Log: In the latest The Atlantic, Michael Erard describes a fascinating linguistic phenomenon: "The Small Island Where 500 People Speak... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
