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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Disney’s Fantasia Analyzed According to Cultural Rank
One of the trickiest aspects of the theory of cultural ranks is what happens in multirank societies. If a society is Rank 1, that’s all there is. Things change... Read more
Posted on 01 August 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tyler Cowen Talks with Kwame Anthony Appiah
Another in Cowen's series of conversations. A portfolio approach to religion: TYLER COWEN: Why are there so few atheists in Ghana? Read more
Posted on 31 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hollis Robbins on the Chinese Study of American Literature
Hollis Robbins, Dancing with Chains, BLARB: Blog//LA Review of Books, April 3, 2018: But we are in their gaze. And as Wesleyan president Michael Roth noted a fe... Read more
Posted on 31 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Call for Progress Studies
Why did the Industrial Revolution start when it did? Why did Silicon Valley happen in California rather than Japan or Boston? Human progress is understudied, an... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
“It Got Adults off Your Back” – Richard Macksey Remembered
The black page in Tristram Shandy On the evening of July 22 I learned that Dick Macksey had died earlier that day. He was a Hopkins legend. Everyone had said... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is AI a Power Hog?
Estimates of the amount of electrical power that AI will guzzle in future vary dramatically. I took a look for @techreview at why forecasting in the field is... Read more
Posted on 29 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The "friends"of Jeffrey Epistein – Those Who See Themselves Being Seen
David Patrick Columbia has a list, culled from the pages of New York magazine, over at New York Social Diary. After the list he offers these observations:... Read more
Posted on 29 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kisangani 2150, Some Materials for Plotting Routes to the Future
Back on July 10 I announced the (mere) possibility of writing a book that takes Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 as its point of departure. Call it Kisangan... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Importance of Accents in Bebop Solos – It's the Rhythm!
This is only one small bit from this essay by Shabaka Hutchings: When I was a student, my former saxophone teacher, Jean Toussaint, would stress to me the... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Energy-efficient Computing Using Nanowires
The human brain is by far the most impressive computing device known to science. Neural networks made of superconducting nanowires might come much closer to... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Black to the Future: Tade Thompson Wins the Arthur C. Clarke for Rosewater
Adam Roberts, From Black Panther to Tade Thompson: why Afrofuturism is taking over sci-fi, The Guardian, July 26, 2019. Last week Tade Thompson, a British-born... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Basics, RGB (+ B&W) – A Reminder
* * * * * Read more
Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Emotion Schemas Are Embedded in the Human Visual System
Philip A. Kragel, Marianne C. Reddan, Kevin S. LaBar, and Tor D. Wager, Emotion schemas are embedded in the human visual system, Science, Volume 5(7):eaaw4358,... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dr. Jerry is in – How to Manage Your Mind
Starting at about 23:33 Seinfeld (and his hosts) has some interesting comments on how to manage your mind. You have a daily routine, you have a place set aside... Read more
Posted on 26 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
We Need for Utopian Thinking to Map a Road to a Better Future
Ezra Klein interviews Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists: Ezra Klein At the beginning of the book, you have this great line, “This book isn’t an... Read more
Posted on 26 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Selection of Recent Photos in Order by Date [cosmos]
Posted on 26 July 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Stagnation and Beyond: Economic Growth and the Cost of Knowledge in a Complex...
In scientific prognostication we have a condition analogous to a fact of archery--the farther back you are able to draw your longbow, the farther ahead you can... Read more
Posted on 25 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
And the Future?
What is it that Yeats wrote back in 1919 after The Great War? Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, [... Read more
Posted on 24 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Can We Resolve Climate Change the Way We Put a Human on the Moon?
This is, with a dedicated national effort? John Schwartz, We Went to the Moon. Why Can’t We Solve Climate Change?, NYTimes, July 19, 2019. In 1970, Dr. Read more
Posted on 23 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Difficulty of Inferring Emotion from Facial Expressions
Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ralph Adolphs, Stacy Marsella, Aleix M. Martinez, Seth D. Pollak, Emotional Expressions Reconsidered: Challenges to Inferring Emotion... Read more
Posted on 22 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
