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
-
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 )
-
Zoom Christmas at Newport
Posted on 28 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
The Children's New Year's Concert
The Russian (from the YouTube page): По традиции мы... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cage Match of the Century: MAGA Vs. MAGA, "Two Enter, One Leaves"
Heather Cox Richardson, December 27, 2024, Letters from an American. Civil war has broken out within the MAGA Republicans. On the one side are the traditional... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Humans (seem To) Process Information at 10 Bits Per Second
Zheng, Jieyu and Meister, Markus, The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? Neuron, Dec. 17, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.11. Read more
Posted on 28 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Star is Born: Yunchan Lim
Over at 3 Quarks Daily my colleague, Brooks Riley, has a nice article about the young Korean pianist, Yunchan Lim, “winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn competition a... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Grassiness
Posted on 27 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Christmas on Cherry Lane [Media Notes 149]
See that house in the middle? That’s 315 Cherry Lane in Johnstown, PA. That’s where I grew up. The family moved there when I was about four and we moved away –... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Spring in Maplewood, NJ
Posted on 26 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
LLM as Collaborator, Part 2: Formal Structure in Heart of Darkness and Literary...
The chart below depicts the length of paragraphs in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The paragraphs are listed in order, first to last, from left to right. Read more
Posted on 26 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Horror! The Horror! A Classical Pianist Improvises: Gabriela Montero
Time stamps: 0:00 A wolf in sheep's clothing 1:58 Improvisation No. 1 6:29 Improvisation No. 2 10:40 Improvisation No. 3 14:54 Martha Argerich's mentorship 16:3... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In Praise of AI Hallucinations: They Help Speed up Research.
William J. Broad, How Hallucinatory A.I. Helps Science Dream Up Big Breakthroughs, NYTimes, December 23, 2024. The public image of science is coolly analytic. Read more
Posted on 25 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Christmas at Longwood Gardens
Posted on 25 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Smartphone Photos 2021 Projected to 2026
6/12 With the smartphone photography the number of photos taken every year exploded from billions to TRILLIONS #Smartphones capture 92.5% of all pictures. Read more
Posted on 24 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
FTH Composes a Sonnet Based on a Photograph
Here's my prompt to FTH (aka Fred The Heretic, a ChatGPT-based poetry generator): This photo depicts the southern tip of Manhattan as seen from the docks in... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Trump Becoming Elon's Puppet? [#Elonald]
Amanda Marcotte, Elon Musk can easily use Donald Trump's greatest advantage against him, Salon, December 24, 2024. The more Donald Trump denies he's being... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hiromi's Sonicwonder - Live from Jazz à Vienne Festival (2024) | Qwest TV
From the YouTube page: The Japanese pianist Hiromi matches spontaneity, technique and communication in her sets, possessing the ultimate in serious intent and... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
LLM as Collaborator, Part 1: Claude the Graduate Student
I started using ChatGPT on December 1, 2022 and have used it quite extensively ever since. I’ve spent some of my time just poking around, somewhat more time... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Beach
Posted on 23 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Retirement May Not Be What You Think It is
Hannah Seo, America is doing retirement all wrong, Business Insider, December 11, 2024. When we think of retirement, we often think of endless leisure and zero... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Competence and Performance in Benchmarking LLMs
I’ve been hearing complaints about the inadequacy of LLM benchmarks for two years now. So let’s think a bit. Consider this passage from Rodney Brooks, [FoR AI]... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
