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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Blossoms
Posted on 21 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Emotion Recollected in Tranquility [affective Technology]
I originally published this in The Valve in May of 2009, where it is followed by an interesting conversation. Keith Oatley elaborated at OnFiction, citing... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Literature and Emotion [affective Technology]
I'd originally posted this back in 2011, but I'm bumping it to the top 1) on general principle, and 2) because it's relevant to some of my current thinking abou... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Irises Are Blooming Early This Year
Posted on 20 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Melissa Cody: Navajo Weaver Beyond Infinity and Back
Patricia Leigh Brown, A Millennial Weaver Carries a Centuries-Old Craft Forward, NYTimes, April 18, 2024. Spiders are weavers. The Navajo artist and weaver... Read more
Posted on 20 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Chat GPT Chooses 42
Ask ChatGPT to pick a number between 1 and 100 - which does it pick? (by @Leniolabs_) pic.twitter.com/94xqfucd9C— Information is Beautiful (@infobeautiful) Apri... Read more
Posted on 20 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Hoboken and the Hudson
Posted on 19 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Will Team LLM Ever Catch up to Team Atlas? [+ Escape from a Maze as a...
I don't know when I first saw a video of Atlas. But whenever it was, I'm sure I was astounded. As astounded as I was with ChatGPT? I don't remember. And of... Read more
Posted on 19 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Pansies
Posted on 18 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Another Crazy Interview: Mark Zuckerberg
YouTube copy: 8,847 views Apr 18, 2024 Dwarkesh Podcast Zuck on: - Llama 3 - open sourcing towards AGI - custom silicon, synthetic data, energy constraints... Read more
Posted on 18 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Peter Thiel on the Western Canon and on A.I.
Tyler Cowen interviews Peter Thiel on various topics. Here’s the introduction: In this conversation recorded live in Miami, Tyler and Peter Thiel dive deep... Read more
Posted on 18 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problem with the AGI Concept
It says that the most important AI system capabilities to create are exactly those things that people can do well. But is this what we want? Is this what we... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pink Sakura
Posted on 17 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Seven Year Itch, Mad Men, Sex and the City [Media Notes 117]
I was, say, half a season in to re-watching Sex and the City, which originally aired from 1998 to 2004, when I watched The Seven Year Itch, a Billy Wilder... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Spots of Color on the Hudson
Posted on 16 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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AI, Chess, and Language 3.3: Chess and Language as Models, a Philosophical...
I now want to take a look at AI, chess, and language from a Piagetian point of view. While he is best known for his work in developmental psychology, Piaget... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mimi and Eunice Ride Again
In 2018 I published these comics, figuring I'd already been canceled so might as well be honest. Not many people saw them, because, you know, canceled. How do... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
First Iris of the Year
I've been photographing irises since 2011. Having any show up in mid-April is unusual. I have an iris photo from April 30, 2021, and three photos from April... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The AI Industry Lacks Useful Ways of Measuring Performance [the Boastful...
Kevin Roose, A.I. Has a Measurement Problem, NYTimes, April 25, 2024. There’s a problem with leading artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Yesterday's Flower Walk
Posted on 15 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
