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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"Intelligence" is Bullsh•t, and AI is Chasing a Mirage
In MIT's Tech Review, a proposal for a revised Turing Test: Riedl agrees that the test should be broad: “Humans have broad capabilities. Conversation is just on... Read more
Posted on 17 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is Philology?
Eric Ormsby reviews James Turner, Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities, in The New Criterion. Well into the review we have this paragraph:... Read more
Posted on 15 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wooly Mammoths Were Around During the Reign of the Pharaohs
i09: We usually think of woolly mammoths as purely Ice Age creatures. But while most did indeed die out 10,000 years ago, one tiny population endured on isolate... Read more
Posted on 14 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Irises
George Mantor had an iris garden, which he improved each year by throwing out the commoner varieties. One day his attention was called to another very fine... Read more
Posted on 13 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Open Letter to Steven Pinker: The Importance of Stories and the Nature of...
Another working paper is now available. URLs: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 13 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Consciousness is Globally Distributed in the Brain
Medical Express reports some work on consciousness at Vanderbilt. You'll need to read the whole article to understand what's going on, but it's not long. Read more
Posted on 13 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Flickr "favorite", Shooting the Sun
Someone at Flickr just marked this flick as a "favorite": This is one of many photos where I just pointed the camera into the sun and hoped for / counted on... Read more
Posted on 11 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Words as Instruments: Some Passages from Paleopoetics
I recently hosted a “session” at Academia.edu that centered on my open letter to Steven Pinker. One Christopher Collins made some interesting remarks, so I... Read more
Posted on 11 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Amazing: Wet Seal+ and Chuck Close Does Philip Glass
For some reason this photo has proved unusually popular in the last however many hours (it's 4:08 PM, Mar. 10, 2015). Why all the views all of a sudden? Read more
Posted on 10 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Makes an Interesting, Perhaps Even a Good, Photo?
Here are two recent photos, both of which I like a lot: The first of those has gotten a bit of praise over at Facebook. I haven't even posted the second to... Read more
Posted on 10 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
3QD Politics & Social Science Prize (Vote for Me)
Voting is open for the 5th Annual 3QD Politics and Social Science Prize. The rules are explained HERE. Public voting will close on 11 Mar 11:59 pm EST. Kenneth... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Software Mysteries: Roll Over Beethoven, Let Satchmo Come Over!
I spent a fair amount of time in the last decade of the previous century working in the software industry (see this post for example) and reading popular... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Seeing the Elephant"
Ringling Brothers has decided to retire their elephant acts, ending a 200 year long tradition in American entertainment. Traditionally, elephants have been... Read more
Posted on 07 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The East India Company: Capitalism and Colonialism Hand-in-Hand
William Dalrymple in The Guardian, on the East India Company: For the corporation – a revolutionary European invention contemporaneous with the beginnings of... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Note on Dennett’s Curious Comparison of Words and Apps
I continue to think about Dan Dennett’s inadequate account of words-as-memes in his paper, The Cultural Evolution of Words and Other Thinking Tools (PDF), Cold... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Galen Strawson on Consciousness: the Problem We Face is Simple, We...
Writing in TLS Galen Strawson runs through the history of philosophical struggles with consciousness from Descartes to the present day. It's a fascinating read. Read more
Posted on 06 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Thursday Evening in Hoboken
Last week I went for the photos that were most popular on my Flickr page over the last half day of so. Today I'm posting photos I took last evening in Hoboken... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Myth-Logic and a Lady Librarian in The Rockford Files 2
This is a follow-up to my previous post about “The Return of the Black Shadow”, an episode of The Rockford Files. If you’ve not read that one, you may want to d... Read more
Posted on 03 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Place in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This is another post that’s primarily descriptive in character and is in response to a paper by Per Aage Brandt, Forces and Spaces – Maupassant, Borges,... Read more
Posted on 02 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Two Photos
This is the third most popular photo over the past half day or so (the top two were in my most recent Friday Fotos): I'd almost forgotten about this one (from... Read more
Posted on 01 March 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
