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 )
-
Probabilistic Weather Forecasting with Machine Learning
Price, I., Sanchez-Gonzalez, A., Alet, F. et al. Probabilistic weather forecasting with machine learning. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10. Read more
Posted on 05 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Coming out of a Melancholy Period [down Phase]
I’m want to continue investigating my blogging pattern as I’ve discussed it in my recent 3 Quarks Daily article, Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for a... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Family Man & Work-life Balance [Media Notes 146]
I watched The Family Man the other night. Here’s what Claude (Anthropic’s chatbot) said about it when I asked it for five examples of films involving the... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will Trump Go to the Mattresses for RFK and Tulsi Gabbard?
Marc A. Caputo, The Two Nominees for Whom Trump Is Prepared to Go to War, The Bulwark, Dec. 5. 2014. But the most critical fights for the president-elect, at... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On My Politics
I view of the recent election I’ve been thinking about my politics. Here’s an edited version of note I recently sent to my friend Frank Munley, whom I’ve known... Read more
Posted on 04 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Growth, Melancholy, and MindCraft @3QD
I’ve got a new article at 3 Quarks Daily: Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World. I’m of two minds about it: On the one hand, I think... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Are the Justices of the Supreme Court Above Justice?
Jodi Kantor and Abbie VanSickle, Inside the Supreme Court Ethics Debate: Who Judges the Justices? NYTimes, Dec. 3, 2024. President Biden and Democratic lawmaker... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Biden Pardons Hunter: Whether You Call It Nepotism Or Old Boys Or Even White...
Shaila Dewan, After Biden Pardons His Son, Prison Inmates Hope They’re Next, NYTimes, Dec. 2, 2024: Andrea James, who runs an organization that helps... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Improvising on "Für Elise" in 17 Ways [very Illuminating]
0:00 Intro 0:14 Für Elise (original) 0:54 #1 Happy 1:40 #2 Sad 3:08 #3 Curious 4:09 #4 Tired 5:57 #5 Terrified 7:27 #6 Triumphant 8:21 #7 Confused 9:29 #8 Crank... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jersey City Night Court
Posted on 02 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Wouldn't You Know, the Ancients Used Psychedelics. Why Am I Not Surprised?
Alexander Nazaryan, Psychedelic Traces Found on Mug From Ancient Egypt, NYTimes, Nov. 28,2024. Archaeologists and chemists analyzed the mug and found a big... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Enhancing Role-Playing Agents Through Emotional Retrieval
Emotional RAG: AI now recall memories based on emotions, just like humans do.Original Problem đ¤:Role-playing agents powered by LLMs... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Palmar Grasp Reflex [in Infants]
Only minutes old and already wrapped around their fingers. Check out the clever the way this labor and delivery nurse helps to promote connection between... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ted Underwood: Why AI Needs the Humanities as a Partner
Wolf Humanities Center 2024-25 Forum on Keywords Wednesday, October 23, 2024 It is not hard to convince humanists that the field of artificial intelligence ough... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fred the Heretic, GPT, Does Poetry, Channeling Augustine, Burton, and Hollander
A little over a year ago OpenAI introduced GPTs: We’re rolling out custom versions of ChatGPT that you can create for a specific purpose—called GPTs. Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A.I. as Religion
Greg Epstein, Silicon Valley’s Obsession With AI Looks a Lot Like Religion, The MIT Press Reader: While I was studying toward ordination as secular humanist... Read more
Posted on 30 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Don't Blink. Smile!
Posted on 30 November 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Neural Maturation, Cerebral Plasticity, and the Adaptive Value of Vacations
I’ve had another session with Claude (3.5 Sonnet) in connection with the article I’m writing. Tentative title: “Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for... Read more
Posted on 30 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Handwriting Stimulates More Neural Mesh Than Typing Does
"Our results reveal that whenever handwriting movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated, resulting in the formation of... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Hoboken April-May 2011
Posted on 29 November 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
