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 ( 7623 )
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Was the Election Decided by Noise?
The day before the election Scott Alexander made a post suggesting that the election may well be (may well have been, in retrospect) won by noise. Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Bit of Ontology
Posted on 11 November 2016
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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We Think with Gestures and Things
In Dark Matter of the Mind Dan Everett devotes a chapter to gesture and its relation to speech. Writing in The Conversation, Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau and... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Arnold Kling on Trump
I also think that those progressives who are predicting that the election will have dire consequences for women, gays, and people of color are making a... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump's Dilemma
Over on Facebook my old buddy from The Valve, Adam Roberts, has been reflecting on Trump's victory. Note that Adam is British, so his observations come from... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The NOTHING Photograph
It’s not an aesthetic judgment. I like these ‘nothing’ photographs. It’s a [somewhat tongue-in-cheek] term of art, nothing. Here’s and example: What’s the... Read more
Posted on 10 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Muslims for Trump – And Then There's Bernie, w/ a Note from Nate Silver [flip th...
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution, I noticed something funny over red lentils: Earlier this week I was sitting in one of my favorite local Bangladeshi... Read more
Posted on 10 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Premonitions of 2016
Richard Rorty, Achieving our Country, 1998 pic.twitter.com/BV9cNSzovJ — lisa kerr (@coleenlisa) November 9, 2016 Chomsky back in 2010 pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 10 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Evolution of Language – Will We Crack It in 30 Years?
When I was young, they was relatively little work on the evolution of human language. Back in the 19th century the Société Linguistique de Paris banned the topi... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Post-Election Blues, First Riffs
In the 19th century the Morris Canal moved coal from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to northern New Jersey and terminated in the Hudson River in Jersey City,... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2016 CULTURE -
Notes on 2 Recent Photos
I took this photo last Saturday, Nov. 6, while walking it Liberty State Park in Jersey City. It is one of over 300 shots I took on that walk and is my current... Read more
Posted on 08 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories – Superb
I’ve been watching “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories” on Netflix and I’m enthralled. Shir Avinada encapsulates the premise: Sometimes the best stories take place i... Read more
Posted on 06 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Benefits of Extended Adolescence
Jessa Gamble in The Atlantic: In a time when college graduates return to live under their parents’ roofs and top careers require years of internships and... Read more
Posted on 05 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Back to Basics, the Urban Design Center
Posted on 04 November 2016
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Ne’er the Twain Shall Meet? Cultural Evolution in Two Worlds
The social and behavioral scientists have just formed a Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution, with Pete Richerson as the first president and Dan Sperber... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Microsleep, When Parts of the Brain Nod off During the Day
Christoff Koch in Scientific American: My last column, “To Sleep with Half a Brain,” highlighted the growing realization of sleep researchers that being awake... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Virtual Reality: Inside the Jellyfish
Steve Johnson, the NYTimes: Steel strapped the Oculus goggles to my head and placed two controllers in my hands. Inside the simulated world, I could lift my... Read more
Posted on 03 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Sage City Symphony
For two years, perhaps three, I played trumpet with the Sage City Symphony. Why it is called the “Sage City Symphony” I do not know, as it is located in... Read more
Posted on 02 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pinker on Chomsky and Universal Grammar, the Modular Mind, Granularity
Tyler Cowen has an interview with Steve Pinker that ranges widely. Here's what Pinker says about the Chomsky/UG debate: It’s a moving target. Read more
Posted on 02 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cultural Logic Or Transcendental Interpretation? – Golumbia on Chomsky’s...
New working paper. Title above, download sites, abstract, TOC, and Introduction below. SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2862006 Academia.edu: https://www.academia. Read more
Posted on 31 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
