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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Ilya Sutskever: "Sequence to Sequence Learning with Neural Networks: What a...
From the YouTube page: Ilya Sutskever full talk "Sequence to sequence learning with neural networks: what a decade" at NeurIPS 2024 in Vancouver, Canada. Read more
Posted on 14 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Depression and Grief [Claude]
I think that understanding the relationship between depression and grief is particularly important for my current investigation of depression – which, BTW, I... Read more
Posted on 13 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mary Jo Salter on Poetry – Pay Attention! [“make It New”]
Aleyna Rentz interviews Mary Jo Salter in the Johns Hopkins Magazine. Salter is emirata from the JHU Writing Seminars and is editor of The Best American Poetry... Read more
Posted on 13 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Sticky [Media Notes 147]
I loved this series, a taught six episodes, one of the best I’ve seen. Here’s Wikipedia’s succinct characterization: The Sticky is a 2024 dark comedy... Read more
Posted on 13 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Vegie Land
Posted on 13 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Computer Chess, Super-intelligence, A Connecticut Yankee, Cargo Cults
I just had an interesting interaction with Claude 3.5 Sonnet. As always, my remarks are boldface while Claude's are plain. * * * * * I believe that neural-net... Read more
Posted on 13 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fred the Heretic Goes Epic with Elon
FTH (aka Fred the Heretic), as you may recall, is a GPT based on the poetry of Frederick Turner. While I’ve already posted a few poems by FTH, I haven’t posted... Read more
Posted on 12 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
After That We Need Some Organic Relief
Posted on 12 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Consciousness, Intelligence, and AI – Some Quick Notes [call It a Mini-ramble]
The subject of consciousness keeps turning up in current discussions of AI and LLMs. Can AIs be conscious? Are current AIs conscious? Maybe a little? What do... Read more
Posted on 12 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The World is Messy. We Can’t Make All Human Behavior Subject to Law Or...
The following Q A turned up on my Quora feed this morning. I’m of two minds about it. “Yes,” the employee lunch break should be inviolable in the sense that it... Read more
Posted on 12 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Inference Time Scaling
On the different hues of "Inference Time Scaling" (ITS) in LLMs #SundayHarangueSince the release of đo1, Inference Time Scaling (ITS)... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 on the Causes of Depression and SAD
More background material for my Melancholy Project. Notice the variety of causal factors involved in depression. As always, read this information with caution.... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pier in Fog Over the Hudson
Posted on 11 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet Celebrates Día De Los Muertos
What’s going on in this photo? This appears to be a performance of musicians celebrating Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the Mexican cultural celebration. Read more
Posted on 11 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Conscious Artificial Intelligence and Biological Naturalism
2/ As AI continues to develop, it is natural to ask whether AI systems can be not only intelligent, but also conscious. But is this likely? And what would the... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AIs Predict Research Results Without Doing Research
From the YouTube page: Scientific literature is growing rapidly, meaning scientists are increasingly unable to keep up with all of the latest developments in... Read more
Posted on 10 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Along the Shore
Posted on 10 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Blog Post: Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Literary Analysis
While I read, think, and write about many things, it’s the analysis of literary texts that got me hooked on the intellectual life. And that’s still the center o... Read more
Posted on 10 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 Sonnet Talks About Tiger Lilies
This is on 11th Street in Jersey City. What am I looking at? These are Tiger Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva), also known as Ditch Lilies or Day Lilies. Read more
Posted on 10 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
And Now Brett Does Wolfie
Think about it, seriously, the history, the cross-currents. We've got European high-classical from the 18th century being bred with contemporary American... Read more
Posted on 09 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
