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 ( 7828 )
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I Did It Again, Another Day Without Blogging (almost) [regulating the Mind]
Metadata: I had to hunt around a bit to find the file where I’d written the previous post in this series. Found it in “New Savanna Notes 17.docx” and moved it t... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Back to Basics, Graffiti from the Nameless Place
Posted on 05 October 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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A Quick Thought on What Happened That Academic Literary Criticism Lost Its Way
Four years ago I quoted Blakey Vermeule as saying: Theory has taken hold in humanities departments because it is (or was) a branch of theology, not science. Read more
Posted on 04 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Yellow Pagodas
Posted on 04 October 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Limits to Economic Growth?
Christopher F. Jones, The Delusion and Danger of Infinite Economic Growth, The New Republic, October 1, 2019. The fairytale of infinite growth—which so many... Read more
Posted on 04 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Redeveloping Economics on a New Mathematical Foundationi (?)
Mark Buchanan, How ergodicity reimagines economics for the benefit of us all, berfrois, Sept. 28, 2019: Everyone faces uncertainties all the time, in choosing t... Read more
Posted on 04 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Quickie: The Linguistic Sign & Language as a Collection of Interlinked Systems
I’m thinking of language as a phenomenon of cultural evolution. But let’s start with Latour. He distinguishes between intermediaries and mediators as forms of... Read more
Posted on 02 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Reading the Human Swarm 1: Hunter-Gatherers and the Plant Trap
I’ve been reading Mark Moffett’s new book: Mark W. Moffett. The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall. Basic Books 2019. It is at heart a work... Read more
Posted on 01 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sometimes It's Fun to Track a Small Boat as It Zips Along the Hudson River
Now it passes the Frying Pan. I don't know what kind of boat that is, but it's been there in that same spot as long as I've been photographing the western... Read more
Posted on 01 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Zombie Ideas Alive and Well in Psychology
Lisa Feldman Barrett, Zombie Ideas, Observer,Ooctober 2019, (APS, Association for Psychological Science): According to the economist Paul Krugman (2013), a... Read more
Posted on 01 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More on Speech as Computation [what Disfluencies Tell Us]
I continue to think about language as the basic computational operation of the mind/brain. The idea is that this business of stringing words together into... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beliefs About Local Impact of Climate Change Affect Beliefs About the...
Astrid Dannenberg Sonja Zitzelsberger, Climate experts’ views on geoengineering depend on their beliefs about climate change impacts, Nature Climate Change... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cuban Music of Several Styles [a Network, Not a Tree]
Shannon Sims (text), Discovering Cuba, an Island of Music, NYTimes, Sept 29, 2019: Just an hour’s flight from the United States, Cuba is drenched in music. Read more
Posted on 30 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Roman War Chariots to the Gauge of US Railroats
From Snopes.com: The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Read more
Posted on 28 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
To J. Hillis Miller, 2019: On the State of Literary Criticism
A new working paper, title above, abstract, table of contents, and introduction below. Download at: Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/40466672/To_J. Read more
Posted on 28 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Am I Blue? Not When I'm Orange!
When I leaned that today's theme was going to be "selfie" I thought, WTF! I don't do selfies. And I don't. But since I decided to join this bit of fun I... Read more
Posted on 28 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cultural Evolution: Expressive Culture Before Practical Practical Culture
The ‘collective mind’, the mesh, the cultural reticulum (to use my current technology) is the medium in which culture evolves. By that I mean the “connected”... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Billionaires: What They Want, What They're up to
That's why there was so much plutocrat rage against Obama: despite the mildness of his rhetoric, they suspected him of not seeing them as the economy's heroes... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Variations in Light and Dark on 'natural' Subjects
Posted on 27 September 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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I Took a Day off from Blogging: More on Regulating the Mind [in the Zone]
Actually it’s two: no blog posts on Tuesday the 24th and Sunday the 22th. If I were in a down phase, as I usually am in the Spring, that would be normal. Read more
Posted on 26 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
