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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Improvising on "Für Elise" in 17 Ways [very Illuminating]
0:00 Intro 0:14 Für Elise (original) 0:54 #1 Happy 1:40 #2 Sad 3:08 #3 Curious 4:09 #4 Tired 5:57 #5 Terrified 7:27 #6 Triumphant 8:21 #7 Confused 9:29 #8 Crank... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jersey City Night Court
Posted on 02 December 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Wouldn't You Know, the Ancients Used Psychedelics. Why Am I Not Surprised?
Alexander Nazaryan, Psychedelic Traces Found on Mug From Ancient Egypt, NYTimes, Nov. 28,2024. Archaeologists and chemists analyzed the mug and found a big... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Enhancing Role-Playing Agents Through Emotional Retrieval
Emotional RAG: AI now recall memories based on emotions, just like humans do.Original Problem đ¤:Role-playing agents powered by LLMs... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Palmar Grasp Reflex [in Infants]
Only minutes old and already wrapped around their fingers. Check out the clever the way this labor and delivery nurse helps to promote connection between... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ted Underwood: Why AI Needs the Humanities as a Partner
Wolf Humanities Center 2024-25 Forum on Keywords Wednesday, October 23, 2024 It is not hard to convince humanists that the field of artificial intelligence ough... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fred the Heretic, GPT, Does Poetry, Channeling Augustine, Burton, and Hollander
A little over a year ago OpenAI introduced GPTs: We’re rolling out custom versions of ChatGPT that you can create for a specific purpose—called GPTs. Read more
Posted on 01 December 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A.I. as Religion
Greg Epstein, Silicon Valley’s Obsession With AI Looks a Lot Like Religion, The MIT Press Reader: While I was studying toward ordination as secular humanist... Read more
Posted on 30 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Don't Blink. Smile!
Posted on 30 November 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Neural Maturation, Cerebral Plasticity, and the Adaptive Value of Vacations
I’ve had another session with Claude (3.5 Sonnet) in connection with the article I’m writing. Tentative title: “Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for... Read more
Posted on 30 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Handwriting Stimulates More Neural Mesh Than Typing Does
"Our results reveal that whenever handwriting movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated, resulting in the formation of... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Hoboken April-May 2011
Posted on 29 November 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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More Cobra Kai: Freud, Girard, and History [Media Notes 143b]
I wanted to follow up on my earlier post about Cobra Kai. Here’s my point of departure: So, what do we have? A conflict between two teenage boys gets reignited... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neurons Fire in a Sequence That Encodes Information
Order matters: neurons in the human brain fire in sequences that encode information https://t.co/tVdB61gzWS— Kevin Mitchell (@WiringTheBrain) November 28, 2024... Read more
Posted on 29 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jersey City Approach and Exit, 2009
Posted on 28 November 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Depression and Creativity
I’m working on an article about depression and decided to ask about the connection between depression and creativity. Claude makes a few general remarks and ask... Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Large Language Models Surpass Human Experts in Predicting Neuroscience Results
Luo, X., Rechardt, A., Sun, G. et al. Large language models surpass human experts in predicting neuroscience results. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10. Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Looking out of the Window
Trina Schart Hyman (1939-2004 ) Children’s book Illustrator Lovely homely illustrations a pleasure to post. That’s a big dog guarding the door pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Take Five," Five Ways
From Wikipedia: "Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond. It was first recorded in 1959 and is the third track on Time Out by the Dave Brubeck... Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is It Over? States and State Systems After Globalism
Christopher Caldwell, This Maverick Thinker Is the Karl Marx of Our Time, NYTimes, Nov. 28, 2024: Who could have seen Donald Trump’s resounding victory coming? Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
