Bbenzon
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 ( 6884 )
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Apple Tops Microsoft in Market Capitalization and is the Largest Company in the...
Not so long ago Apple was a fragile boutique operation dwarfed by Microsoft. Now things are different, says the NYTimes: When Microsoft stock was at a record... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Precision Medicine" – Another Funding Boondoggle?
Obama's decided to spend a pile of money on "precision" medicine. Michael Joyner remarks that we've been down this road before and don't have much to show for... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cultural Beings & Intertextuality; Information
I’ve got two quickish thoughts on cultural evolution, once concerning the concept of cultural beings and the other in my ongoing ‘war’ against the concept of... Read more
Posted on 28 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
J. Hillis Miller on the Future of the Profession
From a recent interview from the Australian Humanities Review (2014): A spectacular example of this sort of thing is the State University at Albany where an... Read more
Posted on 28 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Computing and the Mind: ‘Top-down’ Isn’t Natural
Just a short note. This thought may well be tucked away somewhere in one of my posts (HERE?), but I want it here where I can readily find it. Read more
Posted on 26 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Varieties of the Artist, and a Deflation
William Deresiewicz has a piece about art and artists in The Atlantic that is both interesting and suspicious: The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Superstition and Uncertainty
I've recently been arguing that cultural evolution is driven by anxiety, by uncertainty That is, over the long term, and in the aggregate, that is what motivate... Read more
Posted on 24 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Culture, the Humanities, and the Evolution of Geist
Alex Mesoudi’s 2011 book, Cultural Evolution, says little or nothing about the humanities, about music, art, and literature, though it purports to be synthetic... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Time and Space and the City
Sarah Perry at Front Porch Republic: The Benedictine monk Aidan Kavanagh, who straddled two worlds as both a monk and a Yale divinity professor, proposes that w... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
FDR Skate Park in Philadelphia
FDR is one of the largest DIY skate parks in the world, and is legendary in the skate boarding world. I took those photographs on December 27 and 28, 2014. Read more
Posted on 23 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Boss, WTF! But It Becomes More Compelling in Season 2
I was browsing through Netflix looking for another show to watch. Boss, a grim and grimy political drama from 2011-2012, starring Kelsey Grammer as Tom Kane,... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Mind is Computational, in an Extended Sense
From a post, Understanding (Artificial) Intelligence, by Ali Minai : AI, invented by computer scientists, lived long with the conceit that the mind was "just... Read more
Posted on 21 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cultural Evolution: Literary History, Popular Music, Cultural Beings,...
Another working paper (title above): Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 21 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Issues in Cultural Evolution 2.2: ‘Cultural Genes’ Are Out There in the World
I think the thing to do at this point is post a version of my own view of cultural evolution, but one that skips the terminology that I’ve recently adopted. Read more
Posted on 20 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why Are We Crippling Our Kids?
Jane Brody in the NYTimes: Experts say there is no more crime against children by strangers today — and probably significantly less — than when I was growing... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is It About This Strange Little Cucumber?
This is one of my most popular photos at Flickr, with over a 1000 views: Why? Yes, the cucumber has a strange shape (for a cucumber). But it's not that... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Issues in Cultural Evolution 2.1: Micro Evolution, Dawkins and Memes
It’s time I get back to my attempt to lay out a map of approaches to cultural evolution in a limited number of posts, say a half dozen or even less (in my... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rereading Goethe’s Faust 6: Allegory Alert
At the moment I’m reading an article about the US Military by James Fallows. It has no particular connection with Faust beyond the fact the Goethe himself... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Early-modern Europe as Backwater
Krugman is fishing for something else, but this observation struck me: But was the Mughal state sui generis? Not really. It flourished in an era of “gunpowder... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dan Dennett on 'thinking Machines'
This year's Edge Question is, alas, "What do you think about machines that think?" "Alas" because I have something of a professional obligation to keep up with... Read more
Posted on 18 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY