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 ( 7143 )
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Side Streets in Hoboken in Late Winter
Posted on 10 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Aurora, Exploring & Extending the Limits of the Erotic in Dance
Art video: Grande Duello Dance by Aurora. EDSA content Description from the YouTube page: Prepare to be captivated by this artistic dance performance set to... Read more
Posted on 10 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Organic-silicon Hybrid Computer Tech for Sale
From Jack Clark: Cortical Labs puts the CL1 on sale - a computer that combines neural tissue with a silicon chip: …BRAIN IN A COMPUTER! BRAIN IN A COMPUTER!... Read more
Posted on 10 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Once Again, the Chinese Have Made AI More Interesting Than It Had Been at the En...
As you may have heard, the Chinese have unveiled a new AI, Manus, that, like DeepSeek before it, is the source of consternation among the Silicon Valley... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
We Need a Politics of Abundance
Ezra Klein, There Is a Liberal Answer to the Trump-Musk Wrecking Ball, NYTimes, March 9, 2025. Look at the places Democrats govern — liberal strongholds like Ne... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Pretty Things. Let's Have Some Fun.
Posted on 09 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Reflections of the Sun One Morning in Hoboken Along the Hudson
Posted on 08 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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A Note About Delayed Orgasms in Mind [mind and Body]
David Lodge, Why Some Men Find Orgasms Elusive, NYTimes, Mar. 7, 2025. The opening paragraphs: Most men, as many as 70 percent, say they reach orgasm quicker... Read more
Posted on 08 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will Trump Be Able to Keep Musk Under Control?
Jess Bidgood of the NYTimes writes about the recent cabinet meeding where Trump said that “From now on, he said, the secretaries would be in charge; the Musk... Read more
Posted on 08 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Two Views from the Same Table-top
Posted on 08 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Systematic Bone Tool Production at 1.5 Million Years Ago
Tyler Cowen just posted this abstract at Marginal Revolution: de la Torre, I., Doyon, L., Benito-Calvo, A. et al. Systematic bone tool production at 1.5... Read more
Posted on 08 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Yesterday's Walk Along the Hudson
Posted on 07 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Claude and I Discuss the Idea of Progress in the Arts, from Hazlitt to Bloom on...
This is from an ongoing discussion I have been having with Claude. For this discussion I had uploaded the paper that David Hays and I wrote on cognitive... Read more
Posted on 07 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Coming and Going
Posted on 06 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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A Note on Assembly Theory from Carl Zimmer [via Tyler Cowen]
Conversations with Tyler, Ep. 235: Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe COWEN: Is Lee Cronin right or insane? [laughter] ZIMMER: Lee Cronin is... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Understanding Transformers and Communication Among Sperm Whales
Mar 5, 2025 Allen School Colloquium Series Title: Discovering Engineering the Computation Underlying Large Intelligent Agents Speaker: Pratyusha Sharma (MIT)... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Digital Doppelgangers
Vijayalaxmi Methuku, Praveen Kumar Myakala, Digital Doppelgangers: Ethical and Societal Implications of Pre-Mortem AI Clones, arXiv:2502.21248v1 [cs.CY],... Read more
Posted on 05 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Water, in the Morning
Posted on 05 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Computation, Text, and Form in Literary Criticism: A Conversation with Claude 3.7
I've posted a new working paper. Title above, links, abstract, contents, and introduction below. Academia.edu: https://www.academia. Read more
Posted on 05 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Empathy is Not in Our Genes
Cecilia Heyes, Empathy is not in our genes, Neuroscience Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 95, 2018, Pages 499-507,ISSN 0149-7634,... Read more
Posted on 05 March 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY