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 ( 7626 )
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A History of the World in 20 Entertaining Minutes
H/t Vox: Thankfully, you don’t have to be around for billions of years to understand how that happened and how you got here. In a new video, YouTube creator Bil... Read more
Posted on 17 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Trump Out of Control?
I don’t know. I simply don’t know what to make of events for the last week so. The Comey firing was a debacle. While I have no love for the man, it seemed prett... Read more
Posted on 16 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Ferrucci on AI and Natural Language
Ben Lorica of O'Reilly interviews David Ferrucci. These days Ferrucci is working on a natural language understanding at a Elemental Cognition, a company he's... Read more
Posted on 12 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Fourth Constitutional Crisis?
Over at Down with Tyranny Gaius Publius argues that we're having a fourth constitutional crisis. He sets things up by arguing that Trump will not be impeached:... Read more
Posted on 12 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
3 Notes on Miyazaki: Becoming
From late 2010. I’ve been thinking about Hayao Miyazaki a lot. Here are three notes about his films. There’s a connection between them, but not an argument. Read more
Posted on 11 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cartoon Metaphysics: OOO and Animation
More cartoons on the mind – bumping this post from 2011 to the top of the queue. [Some time ago] ago when I blogged about Animation and the Sentient Text I... Read more
Posted on 11 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sacred Things
From six years ago.... … that still roaring dell, of which I told; The roaring dell, o'erwooded, narrow, deep, And only speckled by the mid-day sun; Where its... Read more
Posted on 05 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Disney and Tezuka at 3 Quarks Daily
My most recent posts at 3 Quarks Daily are about two pop culture figures, Osamu Tezuka and Walt Disney: Tezuka's Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) and the Japanese Take o... Read more
Posted on 03 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Desire and Causality in Road Runner Cartoons
An old one from 2011 that I'm bumping to the top in general principle. What’s the Road Runner series about? The cartoons adhere to a formula: They’re set in a... Read more
Posted on 03 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The State is in Question: What's Happening to the Idea of State Sovereignty?
J. Dana Stuster, writing at Lawfare: In these polarized times, it came as a surprise to me that the authors of three of the most interesting books on... Read more
Posted on 01 May 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
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
