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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How Does the Classical World Emerge from the Quantuam Realm?
Philip Ball, Quantum Darwinism, an Idea to Explain Objective Reality, Passes First Tests, Quanta Magazine, July 22, 2019. The quantum-classical transition: One... Read more
Posted on 22 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Improvisation at 3 Quarks Daily
I’ve got a new 3QD piece out: An Improviser Is Born. I think that musical improvisation is somewhat/deeply misunderstood, for more or less ideological reasons.... Read more
Posted on 22 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunday Evening at Dusk
Posted on 22 July 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Intimacy Directors for Film and Stage
Did you ever wonder how actors worked things out when they had to play intimate scenes, nuder or seminude? Well, neither did I, not really. But it's an issue,... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nature Insisting on Life Among the Detritus of Civilization
William Bryant Logan, writing in The NYTimes, July 20, 2019, about the resurgence of nature in the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island 18 years after it had... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Infants Inspire Computers (sorta')
A technique to improve machine learning inspired by the behavior of human infants https://t.co/ZKuSuCa6k6 #MachineLearning — Data science (@Datascience__) July... Read more
Posted on 21 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Social Brain and the Default Network
“Although the anatomical similarity between the social brain and the default brain is well documented, why this overlap exists remains a mystery. Read more
Posted on 20 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Early Morning Sun
Posted on 20 July 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Change and Development [Tech Evol]
Sections 7.3, “Change” and 7.4, “Development”, from Chapter 7, “Appropriate Technology” of David Hays, The Evolution of Technology Through Four Cognitive Ranks... Read more
Posted on 19 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The NOTHING Photograph, Again (for Peter)
I’ve written about NOTHING photos before*. But I love them, so why not again? Moreover, I took all but one of these when I was on a photo safari with an old... Read more
Posted on 19 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Boston Legal, Tricky Loyalties [Media Notes 6]
One of my online friends offered Boston Legal in response to my previous note, On the distinction between one’s personal interests and one’s duties to the... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Does It Mean to Get Serious About Climate Change?
Ted Nordhaus, The Empty Radicalism of the Climate Apocalypse, Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, Summer 2019. Read more
Posted on 18 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Malaysia's $100B Forest City Built on Four Artificial Islands
As far as I can tell literary studies will remain committed to pre-computational intellectual formations for the foreseeable future and... In the early 1970s I... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problem of Economic Growth: Cultural Disconnects in the Developing World
Here’s a conversation between Tyler Cowen and Paul Krugman: I’m interested in remarks starting at about 23:25. Krugman is speaking: Paul Krugman: In the end we... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
80/20 Strikes Again: Self-driving Cars Are "Way in the Future" [He Had High...
Neal E. Boudette, Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’, NYTimes, July 17, 2019. Detroit and Silicon Valley where shooting for 2019. 201... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Cultural Evolution of Units of Measure
Kensy Cooperrider, Dedre Gentner, The career of measurement, Cognition 191 (2019) 103941, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.04.011. Abstract Units as the... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Not "climb Every Mountain", but Inspiring in Its Own Way
Turn around and take a look. Read more
Posted on 16 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tenure Track Faculty Are Captives of Higher Ed
Austan Goolsbee, Chad Syverson, Monopsony Power in Higher Education: A Tale of Two Tracks, NBER Working Paper No. 26070, Issued in July 2019. Abstract: This... Read more
Posted on 16 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Elaine Sturtevant, Copycat with Wit and Verve
From the NYTimes: Known professionally by her surname, Elaine Sturtevant (b. Lakewood, Ohio, 1924; d. 2014) began “repeating” the works of other artists in 1964... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This NTEL Piece is So Dope I'm Giving It to You Twice [#graffiti #NTEL #GVM003]
Posted on 15 July 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
