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 ( 7805 )
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Comparing the Response of Canadiens and Congolese to Music
Given that only two different groups were investigated, albeit very different groups, the assertion of universality seems a bit overstated. Read more
Posted on 08 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Where in the Brain Does Symbolic Computation Reside?
It's an old and thorny question that Norbert Hornstein is addressing over at Faculty of Language. He's commenting on a paper by Randy Gallistel (which you can... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Rise of Surface Reading
Jeffrey Williams in The Chronicle of Higher Education (5 Jan, 2015), midway through the article: "Reading" as we know it has a relatively short history. Read more
Posted on 07 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Are These Exoplanets Real? What’s Real?
Dennis Overbye, NYTimes, So Many Earth-Like Planets, So Few Telescopes: Astronomers are looking for earth-like planets, planets that might harbor life (as we... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Graffing the Future: Is the Next Phase of Human Cultural Evolution Being...
The Bottle, by DUNE UNO, Gil Scott-Heron 1949-2011 I have a bias about the future, the deep future. We can’t predict it, for it’s too strange. It’s not simply... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cultural Beings Evolving in the Mesh
This one wrestled me hard. In it I use new terminology and concepts–coordinators, phantasms, cultural beings–as though I know what they mean and am comfortable... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Constructor Theory an Object-Oriented Physics?
Over at Edge.org Chiara Marletto talks about constructor theory in physics. Concerning how a bacterium uses DNA to construct an exact duplicate of itself: The... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunday Night Music
was a music program that aired on NBC in the late 1980s. I was vaguely aware of it back in the day, but never watched it. I've now watched three or four episode... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rereading Goethe’s Faust 5: Word and Deed
I have now finished the whole of Part I, and will make some remarks about it in my next post. In this post I will confine my remarks to a key passage at a... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
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
