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 ( 7356 )
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Brain to Brain Communication Requires Learning
Karl Zimmer in the NYTimes (emhasis mine):Dr. Nicolelis and his colleagues began by implanting two sets of electrodes in the brains of four rats. Read more
Posted on 10 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Finite Minds in Communities
Here are some crude notes from my current thinking, and I do mean crude. I keep thinking I’m going to write a well-reasoned post on this stuff. And I will, but ... Read more
Posted on 10 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hiobby, Schmobby! It's About Mental and Neural Balance
Chris Wolston in Nature:Albert Einstein mastered the violin. Richard Feynman banged bongos. Following in the tradition of multi-talented physicists, Federica... Read more
Posted on 10 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Shaky-cam on the Diagonal
These images are derived from one shaky-cam photograph. In the first three I varied the exposure level in Photoshop. Look at the the swirls and eddies that... Read more
Posted on 10 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Intention and Story-Telling: A Neural Explication
Originally published in The Valve, 10.24.07. I've tacked on some out-takes from the original post. Note that I had a long exchange with John Holbo over at The... Read more
Posted on 09 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Paul McCartney on Emotion While Performing
From Alex Bilmes, Paul McCartney Opens Up About Lennon, Yoko, and More, Esquire Magazine, Jul 6, 2015 @ 11:42 AM (H/t 3QD). ESQ: So you don't find yourself... Read more
Posted on 08 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
PIxar's WALL-E, an Old Review
Looking back through the archives I discovered this review of Pixar's WALL-E that I'd published in The Valve back on June 29, 2008. Given that I've just reviewe... Read more
Posted on 08 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sharks in Formaldehyde: New York’s Met and the People Who Made It
Now that I'm thinking about the just-concluded Demolition Exhibition – well, almost, the demolition hasn't happened yet, and we're going to flick that – I... Read more
Posted on 07 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Frank Herbert's Dune 50 Years Later
That is to say, after 9/11. In The Guardian: Every fantasy reflects the place and time that produced it. If The Lord of the Rings is about the rise of fascism... Read more
Posted on 06 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Even Heather Mac Donald’s Welcome to Tag-Up at the Demolition Exhibition...
A defense of graffiti’s egalitarian values in an age of oligarchic excess, financial gamesmanship, and ecotastrophe Who the Eff, you ask, is Heather Mac... Read more
Posted on 06 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Inside Out: I Don't Get It
I saw Pixar's Inside Out as soon as it opened. Why? Because I love animation, I think highly of Pixar at its best, and the film was getting mad hype. I was... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jameson on Neuromancer at 30+
Neuromancer, William Gibson's cyberpunk classic, the novel for which "cyberpunk" was coined, was published in 1984. Fredric Jameson discusses it in Public Books. Read more
Posted on 03 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Recognizing Speech from Analysis of Neural Activity
Herff C, Heger D, de Pesters A, Telaar D, Brunner P, Schalk G and Schultz T (2015) Brain-to-text: decoding spoken phrases from phone representations in the... Read more
Posted on 03 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sacred Animal Beyond Category: Super-Dope in Layers [#GVM004]
Three layers: 1) The Animal is the top layer and is outlined in black (the artist, BTW, is from Dubai). It's painted on 2) the wall of a small semi-enclosed... Read more
Posted on 03 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In Search of Dennett’s Free-Floating Rationales
I’ve decided to take a closer look at Dennett’s notion of free-floating rationale. It strikes me as being an unhelpful reification, but explaining just why... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Abstract Basketball, the Triangle Offense
I've watched a few basketball games, but I wouldn't recognize the triangle offense if it bit me on the posterior. It seems that many far more knowledgeable abou... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Creativity Comes from the Margins: A Lesson for Graffiti Here?
Costica Bradatan has an interesting piece in the NYtimes today, which begins and ends with the Dadaists: Change Comes From the Margins. His thesis is well-known... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Visual Thinking
* * * * * During the late 1980s I collaborated with Richard Friedhoff on a coffee-table book on computer graphics and image processing: Visualizationi: The... Read more
Posted on 30 June 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Love Evolves?
John Tierney at the NYTimes: In the 2012 survey, people were asked a version of the famous question in Christopher Marlowe’s 16th-century poem: “Who ever... Read more
Posted on 30 June 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Laudato Si' @3QD: Bridging the Gaps
This month I've decided to turn my 3QD slot over to my good friend Charles Cameron so that he can comment on Pope Francis' remarkable encyclical, Laudato Se'. Read more
Posted on 29 June 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
