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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Music Engages Mind and Body
Writing in Aeon, Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis says: In fact, the past few decades of work in the cognitive sciences of music have demonstrated with increasing... Read more
Posted on 03 November 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cast Asunder for Violating Disciplinary Boundaries
I hear you. I increasingly feel like an outsider in “my” fields; then DH becomes the field, but what’s that, anyway? — whitney trettien (@whitneytrettien)... Read more
Posted on 02 November 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
It's Party Time in the Amazon
Sebastian Smith at PhysOrg: Deep in the Amazon rainforest, it's that time again—beer o'clock. Members of the tiny, remote Waiapi tribe in Brazil's eastern Amazo... Read more
Posted on 02 November 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Traffic's up at New Savanna
Five weeks ago I reported, Too good to last, the New Savanna hit streak is over. As you may recall, New Savanna had been getting 4000 or more hits a day for... Read more
Posted on 01 November 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Art of the Deal, Aka, How the Sausage is Made
Posted on 01 November 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Booo! Halloween Special
Posted on 31 October 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Numeracy is Cultural, Not Natural
Writing in Aeon, Corey S Powell, notes: What seems innate and shared between humans and other animals is not this sense that the differences between 2 and 3... Read more
Posted on 31 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ta-Nehisi Coates • Public Intellectual • On the Dark Side
A new working paper. Title above, abstract, contents, and introduction below. Download at Academia.edu.: https://www.academia. Read more
Posted on 30 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Connections: Wittgenstein ... Lévi-Strauss ... [Shakespeare] ... [Haiku] ......
I’ve recently finished a submission for the First Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems: By 'expressive systems', we broadly mean computer systems (or... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Remembrance of Things Past [#GV]
Posted on 27 October 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Abstract Patterns in Stories – We’re Swimming in The Singularity [#DH]
I’m submitting a paper to the first Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems (HEX01), November 14, 2017. Title: Abstract Patterns in Stories: From the... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Searle Almost Blows It on Computational Intelligence, Almost, but Not Quite...
John Searle has long been a critic of the pretensions of artificial intelligence to, well, you know, intelligence. He’s perhaps best know for his Chinese room... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mars Or Bust, Maybe Bust
Scott Kelly had spent 520 continuous days in earth orbit, the longest of any NASA astronaut. He's a guinea pig in an experiment to test human ability to live... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Unlike Classical Musicians, Jazz Musicians Expect the Unexpected
Eric Dolan in PsyPost reports on research done at Wesleyan University: The researchers used EEG to compare the electrical brain activity of 12 Jazz musicians... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Hunt for Genius Part 3: Cultural Factors
Here's another reposting from my series on the MacArthur Fellowship Program. This time it's a short one in which I take a quick look at cultural factors. Read more
Posted on 23 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Let's Have an Adventure! – King Soloman's Mines
Bumping this to the top of the queue because, Why Not? * * * * * Another reprint from The Valve, this one from May of 2009. I've taken the liberty of appending ... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Acting White in the Trump-era
Kevin D. Williamson in the National Review: White people acting white have embraced the ethic of the white underclass, which is distinct from the white working... Read more
Posted on 21 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
75% Americans Are Afraid of Government Corruption
In The Smithsonian: For the third year in a row, corruption of government officials has topped the list—only this year it jumped 13 percentage points, from 60. Read more
Posted on 21 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ebert Defends Literature on the Uncharted Seas
Bumping this seven year old post to the top of the queue. The issues are still unresolved. Regert Ebert died on April 4, 2013. * * * * * I’ve recently become... Read more
Posted on 21 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Borges Redux: Computing Babel – Is That What’s Going on with These Abstract...
If the eye were not sun-like, the sun’s light it would not see. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Thinking about corpus linguistics, machine learning, neural nets,... Read more
Posted on 20 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
