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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Friday Fotos: Wild Art in Jersey City
Posted on 13 July 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Training Your Mind, Michael Nielsen on Anki and Human Augmentation
Michael Nielsen, an AI researcher at Y Combinator Research, has written a long essay, Augmenting Long-term Memory, which is about Anki, a computer-based tool fo... Read more
Posted on 13 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Innovative Governance, Side-slipping the Nation-state
Mark Lutter, Local Governments Are Changing the World, Cato Unbound, July 11, 2018. The innovative governance movement is interested in improving governance... Read more
Posted on 12 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Changizi on What the Arts Reveal About the Mind
Tim Horvath interviews Mark Changizi: TH: Stepping back for a moment, how do you conceive of the relationship between the arts and sciences in general? Read more
Posted on 11 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Interpreting Melania’s Jacket [#melaniasjacket #melania]
Do you really think a former model going out in front of cameras doesn’t consider her clothing a statement? #melaniasjacket pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 10 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Positivism", "German Idealism" and Method in the Humanities (and Sciences) [#DH]
Dear friends who call all forms of empirical inquiry "positivism": I have given up trying to nuance your account of history and will instead advance mutual... Read more
Posted on 09 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hedging THE EVENT: Yes, the Super-rich Are Different from You and Me, They...
Douglas Rushkoff was recently paid "about half my annual professor’s salary " to talk with "five super-wealthy guys — yes, all... Read more
Posted on 06 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Eric Weinstein Sees the Need for Hypercapitalism Linked with Hypersocialism
Sean Illing interviews Eric Weinstein (who, incidentally, coined the term the "intellectual dark web") in Vox. From the introduction: Weinstein’s thinking... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beyond the 'two Cultures'
Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule, The ‘Two Cultures’ Fallacy, The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2018. Final three paragraphs: As researchers from th... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is India, a Nation, and Empire?
Arundhati Roy, In What Language does Rain Fall over Tormented Cities?, Raiot, June 28, 2018. This is the text of the W. G. Sebald Lecture on Literary... Read more
Posted on 04 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Quick Notes on ‘meaning’ in Literary Texts
When a literary critic explicates the ‘meaning’ of a literary text, what is it that they are doing? What is the relationship between the meaning thus... Read more
Posted on 03 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stanley Fish, Machine and Mechanism, and the Poverty of His Intentionalist Searc...
Over on the Humanist Discussion Group we’ve been examining Stanley Fish’s criticisms of, for the most part, computational criticism (which he frames as a... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Things Are (getting) Too Complicated
In the past few months I've been getting this vague sense that "things are too complicated." It just comes to me, this vague and weak feeling and this indistinc... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Outline for Catch-22, I Wonder If It's Ring-form
Joseph Heller’s Handwritten Outline for Catch-22, One of the Great Novels of the 20th Century https://t.co/vm2hRHyHhd pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Paragraphs on Postmodernism
John Nerst, Postmodernism vs. The Pomoid Cluster, Areo, June 30, 2018. There is this, by way of initial definition: Postmodernism is more complicated than it... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Monolingual elicitation–How Do You Learn a Language from Someone with Whom You...
It's one thing to figure out a foreign language if you are working with an informant who shares some language with you. In that case you can use the shared... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Implementation and Ontological Pluralism
Yesterday I put up a short post containing a conversation between Daniel Kaufman and Massimo Pigliucci about ontology. Toward the end Pigliucci suggested that w... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pluralism: Multiple Ontologies = Arenas of Abundance?
Near the end of this discussion, Massimo Pigliucci argues for a "plurality of ontologies" (c. 1:06:25). He suggests four (c. 1:09:28): 1) physical objects, 2)... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Immigration & Vermont Farm Families [#ICE]
"Estrellita": a powerful animated film about immigration, #ICE , and #Vermont: https://t.co/9Q4H1bmuP5Created by Middlebury College students, staff, and faculty... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Mayor Says Muslims Are an Asset to Jersey City
While the president has demonized Muslims, we know from living in #JerseyCity (the most diverse city in the US) a strong Muslim community is a great part of... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
