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 ( 7846 )
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On the Currency of "theory"
Stephen Kearse, Wild Speculation Isn’t Worth Much. A ‘Theory,’ However..., NYTimes, 12.19.18: Whatever air of authority attaches to a “theory” is a relatively... Read more
Posted on 26 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Who Cares About the Damn Jetpack? What About a Four Day Work Week?
Tom Hodgkinson, Bring on the Four Day Working Week, The Idler, September 25, 2018: Back in the 1930s, economists, intellectuals and trade union leaders were... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Long Run of Cultural Evolution, a ‘return to the State of Nature’?
I’m told (or I’ve read), for I’ve not actually read him on this, the Marx believed that, through class conflict, history would move us to a regime where the... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dan Wang on Moore's Law [beyond Stagnation], with an Addendum on Entertainment
From Dan Wand, What I Learned in 2018: Moore’s Law turned from a neat backwards-looking observation into an obligation for the entire chips industry to keep... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
There is a Fold in the Fabric of Reality. (Traditional) Literary Criticism is...
I’ve been trying to write this post for over a year now, maybe two. It seems to me that the idea is simple enough. But as soon as I get into it, it grows and... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Deep Utility of Parties as Sites of Transformation
Alice Goffman, Go to More Parties? Social Occasions as Home to Unexpected Turning Points in Life Trajectories, Social Psychology Quarterly, First Published... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
I Think I’ve Figured out How [to/I] Think About Space Travel
A week ago I posted, Space Travel: What we have here is a failure of imagination. That was in response to a discussion of the topic at Crooked Timber, No... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Amazon Court
Josh Dzieza, Prime and Punishment: Dirty Dealing in the $175 Billion Amazon Marketplace, The Verge: Amazon’s judgments are so severe that its own rules have... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Note on Groundhog Day (the Movie)
I saw it when it came out in theaters and I’ve seen it on a small screen once or twice before. And I watched it again yesterday evening. I like it. I could... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: From Longwood Gardens December 2017
Posted on 21 December 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Update on Color Terms: Nature Or Nuture?
Thinking about this again so I'm bumping this to the top. It's from December 2012. Color vision, from genetics through neuropsychology to color terms, is one... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Isochrony in Human Rhythm
Andrea Ravignani and Guy Madison, The Paradox of Isochrony in the Evolution of Human Rhythm, Front. Psychol., 06 November 2017 |... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stagnation 1.3: On the Structure of Ideas [thinking out Loud] and into Philosophy
My initial impulses on the stagnation issue were different from the direction I ended up taking in my first post in response to the recent paper by Bloom, Jones... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Knowledge: Lore, Practice, Engineering, Systemics
This is another segment from David Hays (1995) The Evolution of Technology Through Four Cognitive Ranks, New York, Metagram Press. It is section 2.3.1 from... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
First the New Criticism, Several Decades Later (two Intellectual Generations?),...
Eleanor Courtemanche, The Peculiar Success of Cultural Studies 2.0, Stanford Arcade, 9.19. 2016. We’re seeing a moment—like the spread of the New Criticism in... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kahneman on AI, Machine Learning and Common Sense, and Sunk Costs
From a conversation with Tyler Cowen: COWEN: Do you side with the analysts, such as Martin Ford, who see really a very large number of jobs being potentially... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is That It, Do Humanists (really) Want to Speak with the Dead?
Steven Klein, The New Science Wars, The Chronicle Review, 12.16.16: Because it dwells on these historically specific phenomena, humanistic inquiry is equipped t... Read more
Posted on 18 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stagnation 1.2: Energy Efficiency and the Cost of Deepening Our Understanding...
Yesterday (12.17.18) Alex Tabarrock had a post about the energy efficiency of the ever cheaper logic engines in our many digital devices. Read more
Posted on 18 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Humans Aren't the Only Animals with Energy-hungry Brains
Robin Smith-Duke, Human Brains Aren't 'Hungrier' Than Other Animals', Futurity, 11.6.17: Relative to resting metabolic rate—the total amount of calories an... Read more
Posted on 18 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stagnation 1.1: In What Way is the Drug Business Like the Movie Business?
A couple days ago I uploaded a long post about a decline in productivity stretching back into the previous century. It was based on a recent paper by Bloom,... Read more
Posted on 17 December 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
