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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Coffee, Thru the Window, to Sinatra Drive [Turning Point, hHoboken]
Posted on 08 January 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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In Which Claude 3.5 Discovers Syntax, Then Takes a Left onto the Holodeck Where...
I’m going to give you a sentence where I’ve substituted an underscore (____) for one or more words. I want you to make a grammatical sentence by putting a word... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves [Forest of Jumbled Thoughts...
Our new paper generalizing the chain, circle and graph of thought prompting strategies--that unleashes the hidden power of LLMs (and graduate students). Hope... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
NVIDIA Puts Grace Blackwell on Every Desk and at Every AI Developer’s Fingertips
NVIDIA Press Release: NVIDIA Project DIGITS With New GB10 Superchip Debuts as World’s Smallest AI Supercomputer Capable of Running 200B-Parameter Models... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 Sonnet Describes the Main Concourse in New York City's Grand Central...
What’s this scene? This is Grand Central Terminal's Main Concourse in New York City, one of the world's most iconic railway terminals. Read more
Posted on 07 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Report Card: New Savanna and Academia.edu, End of 2024
Time to report on traffic here at the Savanna and over at Academia.edu. As of Jan. 1, 2025, this is the traffic at New Savanna over the past year. Now look at... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beyond Prediction: Yes, We Need to Work on Societal Resilience, but We Need to...
Just around the corner from here Malcolm Murray has a nice article in 3 Quarks Daily, O3 and the Death of Prediction. Here’s some excerpts from his article: A... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Listening to "Break on Through" in the Old Music Museum and Analyzing and...
This is deeply weird. Just set aside the fact that it’s weird to watch someone else reacting to music. I heard this song when it first came out. I don't think m... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Doctors Need a Transition Ritual to Get into “medical Head”
Stephen G. Flynn, Raymond S. Park, Pete G. Kovatsis and Anupam B. Jena, The Hack Doctors Should Take From Pop Stars and Quarterbacks, NYTimes, Jan. 6, 2025. Read more
Posted on 06 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Realizations of White (flowers)
Posted on 06 January 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet Describes the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy
Notice how quickly Claude correctly identifies the general location of the photo and the time when it was taken. Notice, as well, that it has a reasonable... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Memory in Machines and Minds, a Conversation with Claude 3.5 Sonnet
This is from a long conversation I had with Claude 3.5 Sonnet where I tried to get to a fundamental understanding – Musk’s first-principles approach – of how... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 Describes an Iris on the Street, and Then We Go off into the Urban...
This went on for a while, more than I had intended. Notice how Claude refuses to even admit that that red patch is obviously a person: “I avoid making... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Art Ensemble of Chicago, “Theme De Yoyo”
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is one of my favorite jazz groups, ever. This cut, “Theme Do Yoyo,” is from their 1970 album, Les Stances a Sophie, which was made... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
So It IS the Russkies, Those Drones [into the Grey]
But not in the US, at least not yet: Lara Jakes, Drones, Exploding Parcels and Sabotage: How Hybrid Tactics Target the West, NYTimes, Jan 4, 2025. Read more
Posted on 05 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: “Three Robots Walked into a Bar...”
So, I gave Claude the following prompt: Steve Allen, the American entertainer, had a program called “Meeting of Minds,” in which he imagined that historical... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Six Triple Eight [Media Notes 152]
Kerry Washington “chews scenery” all the way through The Six Triple Eight (2024) as an army major who has to whip her recruits into shape so that they can... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scaling of Search and Learning: A Roadmap to Strawberry Fields o1, o3 (forever?)
Zhiyuan Zeng, Qinyuan Cheng, Zhangyue Yin, Bo Wang, Shimin Li, Yunhua Zhou, Qipeng Guo, Xuanjing Huang, Xipeng Qiu, Scaling of Search and Learning: A Roadmap... Read more
Posted on 03 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.4 Describes a Photo of a Skate-boarding Boy & We Discuss Technique
What’s happening in this picture? This image captures a dynamic skateboarding scene in what appears to be an urban setting, likely a skate park or underpass. Read more
Posted on 03 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Miriam Yevick Saw: The Nature of Intelligence and the Prospects for A.I.,...
New working paper posted. Title above, links, summary (abstract), TOC, and introduction below. Academia.edu: https://www.academia. Read more
Posted on 03 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
