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 ( 7606 )
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Ramble for 2025: Music, 3-year Plan, Photos, LLMs, Great Critics
Lots to do. Music As I recently noted, I’ve recently subscribed to YouTube music AND I’m lovin’ it. It’s a pleasure to be able to type in the name of any piece... Read more
Posted on 26 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In the Court of the Orange King
Ross Douthat, The Wars Within Trump’s Court, NYTimes, Jan. 25, 2025 A scene from the first week of the second Trump administration: After the president held a... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Photoshop’s Generative AI Rocks!
BEFORE: AFTER: For my money, the difference between the first image and the second is (just about) as remarkable as any of the verbal wizardry I’ve seen from... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Yes, ChatGPT Appreciates the Irony of Being an AI Critiquing Human Attempts to...
It wasn’t until after I’d uploaded my post about the inadequacy of LLM benchmarks that it occurred to me that there was something deeply ironic about a... Read more
Posted on 24 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Modes: Search, Inference, Exploration [a Quickie]
Computer science knows a great deal about search and inference. What about exploration? That’s what I’ve been tracking down these last few weeks. That’s what... Read more
Posted on 24 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Little of This, a Little of That • [all Jersey City] •...
Posted on 24 January 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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ChatGPT Critiques Benchmarks as a Measure of LLM Performance and Then...
I just read this article: Kevin Roose, When A.I. Passes This Test, Look Out, NYTimes, Jan. 23, 2025. “Fiddlesticks! Fiddlesticks and moonbeams!” said I to... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Vibes They Are a-Shiftin'
I'm taking that title from Matt Yglesias' latest column. He's right, and that's good. Let's be clear, I really really don't like Trump. Read more
Posted on 23 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
There Aren't All That Many Exceptional People
Gilles E. Gignac, The number of exceptional people: Fewer than 85 per 1 million across key traits, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 234, 2025,... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Old Photos About Places I've Lived [Hamilton Park, Lafayette, Both in Jerse...
Posted on 23 January 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Day Bob Dylan “went Electric” and Changed the World Forever
I forgot. That biopic about Dylan is out and it undoubtedly has the story about how Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 and all hell broke... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hossenfelder: Wake Up, People! The Private Companies That Dominate AI Are Going...
Hossenfelder: Most politicians totally misunderstand the trouble that artificial intelligence is going to bring. This isn’t a race for profit, it’s a race for... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lower AI Literacy Predicts Greater AI Receptivity
Tully, S., Longoni, C., Appel, G. (2025). EXPRESS: Lower Artificial Intelligence Literacy Predicts Greater AI Receptivity. Journal of Marketing, 0(ja).... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Site Preparations for Stargate's Supersecret HQ, Aladdin's Alcazar
Posted on 22 January 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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OpenAI Announces Stargate Project [not the Media Franchise]
Announcing The Stargate ProjectThe Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructur... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
DOGE Unveiled
NEWS - How Elon Musk's vision for DOGE prevailed, culminating in Ramaswamy exit:- Musk Ramaswamy have had diverging ideas of how DOGE would work for months;-... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Piketty and Sandel on How the Left Went Astray [Claude Summary]
New York Times Opinion, Two of the World’s Leading Thinkers on How the Left Went Astray, NYTimes, Jan. 28, 2025: Thomas Piketty is one of the world’s leading... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Rubest Goldbergiest Musical Performance-cum-firing Squad You've Ever Seen
My advice: Watch the first 10 seconds or so, then skip ahead to about 10 minutes in. That's what I did. I'm sure there's some interesting stuff in the first 10... Read more
Posted on 21 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Empire State Building, Two Contexts, Two New Colorways
Posted on 21 January 2025
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Meeting of Minds: Elizabeth I, Jane Austen, Jackie Kennedy
It’s time for another MEETING OF MINDS, based, of course, on Steve Allen’s old TV show, Meeting of Minds. This is where Claude 3. Read more
Posted on 21 January 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
