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 ( 7802 )
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The Drunken Monkey – That's Us
Robert Dudley, in The Scientist: When we think about the origins of agriculture and crop domestication, alcohol isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Ordinary Views from Yesterday's Shoot
I like to shoot ordinary views. Nothing flashy, no tricky composition. Just the world, at least a little piece of it, front and center. Like this tree: The... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Mind-reading" Unravelled?
The notion of "mind-reading" has been bugging me since, I guess, some time in the last decade of the previous century. This is the idea that we humans have a... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Simple Domestic Scene
I liked this shot as soon as it came from the camera. Others have liked to as well. It's simple and direct, nothing flash, no self-aware composition: We're... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ten Russian Cantors Walked into a Bar...
Well, it wasn’t a bar; it was a synagogue. And the synagogue wasn’t in Russia; it was in New Jersey. But there were ten of them; they are Russian, and they are... Read more
Posted on 19 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Avatar: 20 More Years?
The New York Times: Billions of dollars are riding on the effort. The effects-heavy sequels will be expensive: Mr. Cameron has vaguely said their combined... Read more
Posted on 16 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has the Turing Test Been Passed?
You've probably heard that claims are being made about a computer passing the Turing Test. The program pretends that it's a 13-year-old Ukranian boy. FWIW, Ray... Read more
Posted on 12 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Made It to the Semi-Final Round of 3QD Contest
…just barely (scroll to the bottom of the list). I'm talking about the 3 Quarks Daily Arts and Literature contest, of course. My essay: What's Photography... Read more
Posted on 12 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Google Does Graffiti
From the New York Times: PARIS — There’s a portrait of an anonymous Chinese man chiseled into a wall in Shanghai, a colorful mural in Atlanta and black-and-whit... Read more
Posted on 10 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AI: A Return To Meaning - David Ferrucci
The conclusion to Ferrucci's comment on the video: "This talk draws an arc from Theory-Driven AI to Data-Driven AI and positions Watson along that trajectory. Read more
Posted on 09 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rens Bod on Patterns
WHO'S AFRAID OF PATTERNS?: THE PARTICULAR VERSUS THE UNIVERSAL AND THE MEANING OF HUMANITIES 3.0. BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review. Vol. 128, No. 4,... Read more
Posted on 07 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Shameless Bleg: Vote for Me for the 4th Annual 3QD Arts & Literature Prize
3 Quarks Daily is offering prizes for the best web essays on the arts and literature. I have shamelessly entered my own essay, What's Photography About, Anyhow? Read more
Posted on 07 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Announcer Prepares
Tom Durkin announces horse races. He's preparing to announce the upcoming Belmont Stakes, his last: He has a dossier on each of the 12 possible starters that... Read more
Posted on 03 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Handwriting Matters
From the New York Times: The effect goes well beyond letter recognition. In a study that followed children in grades two through five, Virginia Berninger, a... Read more
Posted on 02 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Keeping the Groove
From the Harvard Gazette: Rhythm research has implications for both audio engineering and neural clocks, said Holger Hennig, a postdoctoral fellow in the... Read more
Posted on 02 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hyperobjects and "Distant Reading"
Two successive tweets from Alan Liu: — Alan Liu (@alanyliu) May 31, 2014 So, topic models. Is the model the hyperobject or is it simply a description of the... Read more
Posted on 01 June 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Women Take to the Streets, Make Art
Julia Baird in the New York Times: One of the more astonishing outcomes of the Arab Spring has been a flowering of street art, a reclamation of dangerous,... Read more
Posted on 28 May 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Patterns: Ramsay on Shakespeare, and Beyond
I was looking though the syllabus for one of Alan Liu’s courses, Literature + (New Media Literary Interpretation: Close, Distant, and Other Reading) and came... Read more
Posted on 27 May 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
I Don’t Give a Crap About Science
I originally published this in The Valve, 25 March 2010. I republished it once before at New Savanna and I think it's worth republishing, this time in the... Read more
Posted on 23 May 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Biology of Musical Rhythm
Patel AD (2014) The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong? PLoS Biol 12(3): e1001821. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio. Read more
Posted on 21 May 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
