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 ( 7808 )
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Real-time Machine Translation of Voice Messages
From the NYTimes: On Monday, Harry Shum, the Microsoft executive vice president who oversees the research operation, was bursting with pride while... Read more
Posted on 01 May 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"OK to Destroy" #GVM004
Been thinking about what to call the Green Villain First Annual Jersey City Invitational Graffiti Jam besides the GVFAJCIGJ. "OK to Destroy" seems metaphysicall... Read more
Posted on 30 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Letterman Thinks About the Mind
As we all know, David Letterman is retiring from the "Late Show" after, well, not forever, but a long time. He gave a long interview to the good folks at The Ne... Read more
Posted on 30 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Graffiti: From Art Crimes to Family Day #GVM004
Back in the day, when graffiti was just getting started in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was a criminal act. A minor crime, to be sure, but still... Read more
Posted on 29 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Knowledge the Opiate of Intellectuals?
EurekAlert! from 2006: Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. Read more
Posted on 28 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
SP One, What’s He Thinking? #GVM004
Look at this flick, taken at 1:17 PM, Saturday 25 April 2015, at the Pep Boys Memorial Graffiti Jam in Jersey City: SP One’s working on a piece, standing in... Read more
Posted on 28 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Direction of Cultural Evolution: Lessons from the 19th Century...
I've got another working paper available (title above): Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ian Morris on Why Societies Collapse
Stanford's Ian Morris, a classicist by training, is one of 32 fellows in the inaugural class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows in the humanities and social sciences. Read more
Posted on 26 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Energy and the Origin of Life
The Financial Times reviews Nick Lane, The Vital Question: The key moment for the evolution of life on Earth, Lane says, came at some point between 2bn and 1.5b... Read more
Posted on 26 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Basics of Graffiti Culture #GVM004
These photos were taken on Saturday, 25 April, 2015, at the Green Villain Pep Boys Invitational Greffiti Jam and Building Farewall. Read more
Posted on 26 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Pep Boys, Newport, Jersey City: #GVM004
The Pep Boys in Newport in Jersey City has closed and the building's been sold. Next month it will be demolished to make way for new construction. Read more
Posted on 24 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neural Recognizers: Some Notes Based on a TV Tube Metaphor
Introduction: Raw Notes A fair number of my mosts here at New Savanna and edited from my personal intellectual notes. In this post the notes are unedited. Read more
Posted on 23 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Communicating with Yourself, Some Data Points in the Contemporary Intellectual...
But first, not so contemporary: E. M. (“only connect”) Forster is known for various things, including the assertion, “How do I know what I think until I see wha... Read more
Posted on 22 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Photos and Forsythia
When I was young I looked to the blossoming of forsythia as a sign of Spring. I still do. But this isn’t a post about forsythias or Spring. Read more
Posted on 22 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scientia Salon on Sperber’s Cultural Attraction
Scientia Salon recently had a discussion of Nicolas Claidière, Thomas C. Scott-Phillips and Dan Sperber, How Darwinian is cultural evolution? Read more
Posted on 21 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Molecular Storms and the Subtleties of Matter
First links to other New Savanna posts bearing on the relationship of mind to matter: • Galen Strawson on consciousness: the problem we face is simple,... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The New Whitney in the Meat-Packing District: Blood Guts and 21st Century Art
The building was designed by Renzo Piano, a starchitect up there with Nouvel and Gehry (Flickr album). From the NYTimes, by Michael Kimmelman: From the west,... Read more
Posted on 19 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pulp Fiction as Ring From
I watched Pulp Fiction last night – streamed it on Netflix. I couldn’t help but notice that something was funky about the timing of events. Read more
Posted on 19 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Universe and Time
Some more on the recent book, Roberto Mangabeira Unger (a philosopher) and Lee Smolin (a physicist), The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal I... Read more
Posted on 19 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Theorizing the Web 2015: The Web and the World-Wide Wall #TtW2015
My proposal didn't make the cut for Theorizing the Web 2015 (currently in its 2nd day), so I thought I'd post my abstract anyhow, along with a link to my posts... Read more
Posted on 18 April 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
