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 ( 7846 )
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Little House Among the Bean Plants [ChatGPT]
We start with this photo I took of some bean plants in a community garden in Jersey City. We ask ChatGPT to some cabins under the plants. Turn on the lights. Di... Read more
Posted on 06 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pop Culture's War Against Women
In How Pop Culture Betrayed Millennial Women, Maya Salam reviews Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie... Read more
Posted on 06 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Middle Kingdom Rising
Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu, DeepSeek. Temu. TikTok. China Tech Is Starting to Pull Ahead. NYTimes. May 5, 2025. China’s top leaders did not appear to fully gras... Read more
Posted on 05 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Deep Seeking Xanadu, with Illumination by ChatGPT
Back in February I posted three sonnets written by FTH (FredTheHeretic): Deep Seeking Xanadu: A Sonnet Cycle on East, West, and Kisangani. Read more
Posted on 05 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Plethora of Pansies
Posted on 05 May 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Traffic’s Up: New Savanna Stats, May 1, 2025
Traffic is definitely up at New Savanna. Notice that spike at the right. It’s above 250K. Compare that with what we had a month before, on March 31, 2025: The... Read more
Posted on 05 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hallucinations on the Rise Among More Powerful AIs
Cade Metz and Karen Weise, A.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse, NYTimes, May 5, 2025. More than two years after the arrival... Read more
Posted on 05 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tulip Mania
Posted on 04 May 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Tyler Cowen Travels for the Vibes; He May Thus Have Unique Insight into the...
You can’t follow Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution for long before you realize that this guy likes to travel, a lot. As far as I can tell it’s mostly long... Read more
Posted on 04 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Slavoj Žižek Says the Future is Undetermined
Nathan Gardels, A Quantum Theory Of History, Noema, May 2, 2025. Recently, the philosopher Slavoj Žižek gave a lecture on “a quantum theory of history... Read more
Posted on 04 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Indiana Jones Goes to an Alien World and ChatGPT Gives Us Pictures
I’ve become interested in using photographs as prompts for image-making with ChatGPT. I’ve now done quite a bit of this, but have only posted two bitx so far,... Read more
Posted on 03 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Two Kinds of Happiness, “affective” and “effective” [First World Happiness...
Molly Young, My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth,’ NYTimes Magazine, May 2, 2025. The article opens: “Coming to Helsinki in February is an... Read more
Posted on 03 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adam Neeley: The Ethics of Fake Guitar
0:00 Intro 3:42 Part I - A Brief History of Faking Performances 10:15 Part II - How to Fake Musical Performances 15:07 Part III - Why Faking Performances is... Read more
Posted on 03 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Interview with R. Crumb, 2011
From the YouTube page: "Associated Press journalists Ted Shaffrey, Richard Drew and Matt Moore meet with illustrator Robert Crumb and his wife and... Read more
Posted on 02 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
ChatGPT Illustrates the First 36 Lines of "Kubla Khan"
Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" is noted for its visual richness, supposedly inspired by opium. But who knows? I decided to see what ChatGPT could do when asked to... Read more
Posted on 02 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Hoboken Potpourri
Posted on 02 May 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Ultimate Import of Current Machine Learning Technology
During the 1990s David Hays and I sketched out an account of the major transitions in human cultural evolution; we called them ranks. “The Evolution of... Read more
Posted on 02 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Easy Money, Sant Andreu Jazz Band
534,340 views Premiered Mar 9, 2023 2021 EASY MONEY ( Benny Carter) del CD JAZZING 12 VOL 2 cD 1 JAZZ PARTY CELEBRATION 15 YEARS SANT ANDREU JAZZ BAND Joan... Read more
Posted on 01 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
ChatGPT Imagines Three Different Backgrounds for Three Small Sculptures
Here's a photo of three sculptures against a dark background. The two wood carvings were made by my grandfather, Axel Benzon. If you look at the base of Horus... Read more
Posted on 01 May 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Easter Eggs, Lilacs, Rose, Lilacs, Easter Eggs
Posted on 01 May 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
