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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Matthew Giles Interviews Lee Quiñones in Vulture: Of...
Matthew Giles interviews Lee Quiñones in Vulture: Of your work that you’ve created, which did you feel was the most important? Read more
Posted on 31 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Fortunes of Shakespeare in a post-Theory World
David Womersley in Standpoint Magazine: Although the fortunes of theory as a practice waned, its impact was lasting. In particular, critics who were not in... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
42 Quarks: Getting from Here to There
I've written 14 essays for 3 Quarks Daily over the past year. I've bundled them into a PDF, which you can download here:... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
One Way Trip to Mars Has 200,000 Takers
From the NYTimes of December 8, 2014: Where NASA-style flight plans are designed on the Apollo moonshot model of round-trip tickets, the “one” in Mars One means... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tires in a Wall with Paint
I'm thinking of taking a short break, just until the new year. Let the brain chillax. No guarantees, mind you, and I may post some flix, 'cause I've got... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Materials for a New Mythology: 2015 Here I Come!
So far I’ve got: The Anthropocene and the end of the world The prospect of a permanent human presence in space: the Moon, asteroids, and Mars Human cultural... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Slavoj Žižek, a Note
I've read almost nothing by the man. Yes, I understand that he's a major thinking in some pretty large intellectual circles. Alas, I can't help but regarding hi... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The Beach
We're at the threshold of a new year, riding the tipping point into a new era. Beaches are thresholds between land and sea, and much else. Read more
Posted on 26 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Mars Too Expensive? Is That the Main Point?
From n + 1, Ken Kalfus on "The Folly of Mars": For more than a century now, the fourth planet from the sun has drawn intense interest from those of us on the... Read more
Posted on 26 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How I’m Going to Spend Christmas Day
I’m going out for dinner with friends, and new friends at that, so that will be good. But between now – 8:30AM – and then how would I know? Read more
Posted on 25 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flickr Spike, Why?
On Friday night, December 19, I had a big spike in traffic to my Flickr page: I took that screen shot at 8:31 AM Saturday morning (the 20th). I’d had 16,407... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
For the Historical Record: Herbert Simon on Literary Criticism
Some time ago I was cruising through the blogosphere and came across a post at Mixing Memory entitled Cognitive Science and Literary Criticism (from 2004! almos... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Of Drugs and Medicine: When Magic Became Science
Benjamin Breen writing in Aeon: When I began my graduate studies in history, I decided to focus on the period when magic and alchemy morphed into modern science. Read more
Posted on 24 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gradisil, SF, and Sacred Hunger
Since I've begun re=thinking space travel I think it's time to dust off this old review of Adam Roberts' Gradisil. I published it in The Valve on July 11, 2006... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Extended Cognition and the Collective Mind
Consider this to be an addendum to yesterdays' post What is Culture that it can Evolve? The Mesh, from Individuals to the Group. Read more
Posted on 23 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is Culture That It Can Evolve? The Mesh, from Individuals to the Group
Things are complicated, and there’s a sense in which I’ve jumped the gun in some of my earlier posts in this current series, which I’ve provisionally titled... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How the Victorians Invented the Future
Writing in Aeon Iwan Rhys Morus explains how our Victorian forebears invented the future: Before the beginning of the 19th century, the future was only rarely... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
One Tourist in Three is a Pilgrim, 330M Annually
"Pilgrimage is not merely ancillary to the modern spiritual existence," writes Bruce Feiler in The New York Times: In an age of doubt and shifting beliefs,... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sampling the Space
This is a more or less neutral version of what came out of the camera. Since it's one of my shaky-cam photos there's no point in trying to develop the photo so... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Christmas Music
There is the bag of music that exists in my mind as Christmas Music. All the turns run together, some more frequently than others, in a big lump, like a ball... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
