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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Systematic Annotation of Literary Texts, A Shared Task
Posted to the Humanist Discussion Group: Dear all, We would like to draw your attention to a community-oriented initiative that will introduce a new format of... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cultural Identity and Cultural Appropriation @3QD
My most recent articles at 3 Quarks Daily: Other People’s Culture and the Problem of Identity (May 29, 2017) Kenan Malik Asks Some Questions about Culture and... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Computational Value of Diagrams
Something I'm thinking about and may comment on a bit later:In a landmark 1987 essay,“Why a Diagram Is (Some- times) Worth Ten Thousand Words,” Herbert Simon an... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mathematics, Computing, and the Literary Mind
As some of you know, Willard McCarty has been hosting an informal online seminar on the digital humanities since 1987. One topic that comes and goes is the... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Threat of AI
Kai-Fu Lee has an important op-ed in the NYTimes, "The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence". He begins by pointing out that all too many discussions of the... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Maybe Quantum Mechanics Isn't So Weird After All
I more or less believe that on general principle, but I don't quite follow this interesting article by Philip Ball, Quantum common sense. I haven't read it... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump's Foreign Policy: An End to American Hegemony?
Writing in The American Conservative, Andrew Bacevich notes a post-Trump nostalgia for a world order characterized as, "Liberalism, along with norms, rules,... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Thinking is Action as Well (in the Brain)
June 12, Science News: Summary: Neuroscientists have recently put forward an original hypothesis -- all these cognitive functions rely on one central function:... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Rainbow Variations on a Blossom
Posted on 23 June 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Cooperative Hunting Among the Orcas?
From the National Post: The orcas will wait all day for a fisher to accumulate a catch of halibut, and then deftly rob them blind. They will relentlessly stalk... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Open Letter to Dan Everett About Literary Criticism (PDF at Academia.edu)
I’ve finally PDF’ed my Open Letter to Dan Everett and uploaded it to Academia,edu:... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wonder Woman: A Quick Take
After reading the rapturous reviews and reading about young girls exiting the theaters pulling swords from their dresses and spinning lariats of glowing gold I... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Extra! Computational Criticism Breaks with Tradition! Sky Remains Overhead
Andrew Goldstone has decided that perhaps so-called distant reading is not reading at all. The document is relatively short, “The Doxa of Reading” (PDF), and... Read more
Posted on 19 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Does "distant Reading" Presage a Return to Poetics?
By all means, read the piece Goldstone links to in the first tweet,"The Doxa of Reading" (accepted for publication in PMLA). Here’s a preprint of “The Doxa of... Read more
Posted on 18 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, June 2017
Posted on 16 June 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Kenan Malik Asks Some Questions About Culture and Cultural Appropriation
One of the more endearing traits of cultural appropriation warriors is their belief that only they have read and thought about the issue. Read more
Posted on 16 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jomny Sun – OOO Tweeter
look. life is bad. evryones sad. we're all gona die. but i alredy bought this inflatable boumcy castle so r u gona take ur shoes off or wat — jomny sun... Read more
Posted on 16 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Timothy Morton in the Guardian – "the Philosopher Prophet of the Anthropocene"
Alex Blasdel writes in The Guardian. Morton in the art world: Over the past decade, Morton’s ideas have been spilling into the mainstream. Read more
Posted on 15 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Shelley’s Frankenstein a Ring-Form Text?
I’ve not read Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, but I’m told that it has a complex narrative structure. Dorothea Wolschak explains: In the core of the... Read more
Posted on 14 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Frederick Douglass Was the Most Photographed Man in 19th Century America
Tyler Cowen was a wide-ranging interview with Jill Lepore, Harvard historian and writer for The New Yorker. The whole thing is worth reading, but I was... Read more
Posted on 14 June 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
