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 ( 7792 )
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The American Political System is Broken. How Can We Fix It?
Jerry Cayford has an interesting article in the curren issue of 3 Quarks Daily: Final Five and U.S. Competitiveness. The opening paragraphs: California’s primar... Read more
Posted on 22 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Flowers, Including Irises
Posted on 22 May 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Role of the Public University in the Emerging AI World
Amarda Shehu, What the University Is Now For, Amarda Shedu, Apr. 27, 2026. There's a bunch of introductory stuff about how universities have conceptualized thei... Read more
Posted on 21 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Multi-agent System for Automating Scientific Discovery
Ghareeb, A.E., Chang, B., Mitchener, L. et al. A multi-agent system for automating scientific discovery. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10. Read more
Posted on 21 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Fairy Voice Mother Reacts to “Unchained Melody” [Media Notes 181]
Fairy Voice Mother says: In this video, I (a contemporary voice specialist) analyse “Righteous Brothers” performing “Unchained Melody” (Live in 1965) on the fly... Read more
Posted on 20 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In the Shade [Shipyard Park]
Posted on 20 May 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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How Come No One Mentions Rodney Brooks in the LLM Debates?
Claude brought up Rodney Brooks in a recent discussion. I'd been dialoguing with Claude about Tyler Cowen's credulous treatment of various claims about LLMs... Read more
Posted on 20 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Drummer and the Bass Player [Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival]
Posted on 19 May 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Botanical Classification and the Theory of Evolution [MR #9]
When I made that first post about Tyler Cowen’s monograph on marginalism – Tyler Cowen has thrown in the towel and is waiting for the machines to take over – I... Read more
Posted on 19 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Chinese Top 100 Books
If anyone else is interested in literary polls - these are the top 100 highest-rated books on Douban Books (basically Chinese Goodreads) w/ number of ratings.... Read more
Posted on 19 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken Arts Fest
Posted on 19 May 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Stanford as a Hatchery for Future Tech Overlords [Book Review]
Anand Giridharadas, The Secret Elite One Freshman Discovered at Stanford, NYTimes, May 18, 2026. Book Review: How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at... Read more
Posted on 19 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Eddie Kramer: Recording the Gods of Rock
YouTube: In this interview, I sit down with legendary audio engineer and producer Eddie Kramer. We discuss his ridiculously impressive discography, crafting... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, Spring 2026
Posted on 18 May 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Gary Marcus Declares Victory: “I Won; Nobody Uses Pure LLMs Anymore.”
The pure LLM debate - which I had for many years, here and elsewhere - is indeed no longer relevant. Why? Because I won; nobody uses pure LLMs anymore. Read more
Posted on 18 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why Doesn’t Cowen Mention Thomas Kuhn on Scientific Revolutions? {Cowen as a...
In the course of working through the Chapter 3 material on botany and biological evolution in Cowen’s marginalism monograph I was suddenly struck by the fact... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AI Addiction and Idolatry in Silicon Valley (Stanford)
Theo Baker, What A.I. Did to My College Class, NYTimes, May 17, 2026. Over half-way through the article: Emerging research has begun to show what most people... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Homo Economicus on Steroids
Central Park is great, but it takes up a lot of space and isn’t utilized to its full potential. That’s why I worked with McKinsey on a plan to make it a state o... Read more
Posted on 16 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This Calls for More Irises
Posted on 16 May 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Trump's Accidental Triumph in Beijing
That’s the title of the latest edition of Robert Wright’s NonZero Newsletter on Substack. Rather than summarizing and paraphrasing I’m going to reproduce most,... Read more
Posted on 16 May 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
