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 )
-
Synchrony, Dance, and Cultural Evolution
Kevin Laland has an interesting article on cultural evolution over at This View of Life, "Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind". Read more
Posted on 01 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bardolatry, Tyler Cowen Edition: Is Shakespeare a Real Person Or a Mostly...
Economist and uberblogger Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution is featured in a podcast at Financial Times, Cardiff Garcia’s Alphachat. Read more
Posted on 30 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Four Point Plan to Change the World, Or at Least the USofA
In the era of His Highness Lord Trump, this old post seems worth a thought. Ha! This is going to be quick and crude. Some Assumptions I’m making many... Read more
Posted on 28 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Google Translate and the Wondrous Limits of Deep Learning (AI)
Over at Language Log Mark Liberman has had a series of posts bearing on the limitations of artificial intelligence. They take Google Translate as an example. Read more
Posted on 23 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
RESISTANCE – Resistance to Trump
Over at Blogging Heads, Robert Wright talks with Erica Chenoweth, a student of non-violent resistance who is Professor Associate Dean for Research at the Jose... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Origin of Objects (towards a Philosophy of Computation)
This post, from February of 2012, speaks to my current concerns. While cruising the web I came across a 1996 book by Brain Cantwell Smith, On the Origin of... Read more
Posted on 20 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Context and Meaning: A Bull and a Girl
Wall street bull, by htmvalerio The Wall Street bull is a well-known icon. I’ve seen many photos of it. On the few occasions that I’ve walked by it I’ve simply... Read more
Posted on 14 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is the Cognitive Work of Science Grounded in Tracking?
That's what Louis Liebenberg argues, and he's got a variety of publications and materials at Cybertracker. Here's the associated blog. Read more
Posted on 11 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
5Pointz Writers Sue Building Owner
NYTimes: It was a crushing blow to nearly two dozen established graffiti artists when in 2013 the owner of the Queens building complex known as 5Pointz ordered ... Read more
Posted on 10 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hefner Rising: The Playboy Story
Amazon has just released American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story, a ten episode series about Hefner and the magazine he founded in 1953. Read more
Posted on 09 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sleep in Review
The Fashion and Style section of the NYTimes, of all places, has an article on sleep, "Sleep Is the New Status Symbol", by Penelope Green. It opens: At M.I.T. Read more
Posted on 08 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Author, Author, Who's an Author?
Gabrielle Bellot,How Many Shakespeares Were There? On Authorship, Erasure, and the Myth of the Great Solitary Writer, a The Literary Hub. Read more
Posted on 07 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dancing is Good for the Brain
Gretchen Reynolds in the NYTimes: A new study that compared the neurological effects of country dancing with those of walking and other activities suggests... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
GOOD: Global Organization of Democracies
Here’s a triple, a trifecta, a trinity, from Charlie Keil. It’s about a Global Organization of Democracies (GOOD). Let him explain it. Read more
Posted on 05 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gaming the Codes to Increase Medical Profiteering
The American medical system is built on codes, codes to classify illness and procedures. And these codes can be gamed to increase profits; one can even take... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rogue's Gallery Revisited
Back in 2009 Michael Gross published a history of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The title tells it all, Rogues’ Gallery: The Secret History of the... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Numbers as Cultural Tools
FiveThirtyEight interviews Caleb Everett, author of Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures. Numbers may feel instinctual. They... Read more
Posted on 02 April 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The "normalization" of Digital Humanities?
Over at The Stone and the Shell Ted Underwood has a new post, Digital humanities as a semi-normal thing: "In place of journalistic controversies and flame... Read more
Posted on 30 March 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Conduct of Interdisciplinary Work (& Memes)
A few years ago I had a post in which I featured an article by Jeremy Burman on the the history of the meme concept, "The misunderstanding of memes" (PDF). Read more
Posted on 28 March 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Buffy Meets The Donald
In honor of the 20th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the NYTimes has an article about Buffy fanfic. Here's a passage from one of the pieces they... Read more
Posted on 27 March 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
