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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AI, Chess, and Language 1: Two VERY Different Beasts
Chess has been with AI since the beginning. In fact, computer chess all but beats the origins of the term “artificial intelligence,” which was coined for the... Read more
Posted on 07 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
John Sowa on Meaning in Language and LLMs
An exercise for the reader: Background: I have argued that meaning involves intention, relationality, and adhesion, where intention inheres in the relationship... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Chinese Room Again
The line between intelligence and imitation gets thinner and harder to discern as the imitation is done at a peta scale, and the jury is the one being imitated.. Read more
Posted on 06 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Familiar Tune Reharmonized [They Don't Sing It This Way Before Football Games]
H/t Ethan Iverson. To Anacreon in Heaven · Jim Beard Show of Hands ℗ Sunnyside Communications Released on: 2013-09-10 Artist: Jim Read more
Posted on 06 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Looking for Computational Reducibility in a Chaotic World
Posted on 06 March 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Computational Irreducibility and the Limits to AI [Wolfram]
Stephen Wolfram, Can AI Solve Science?, Writings, March 5, 2024. Reality is a mixture of computationally irreducible and reducible phenomena: But given... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sam and Elon Sittin' in a Tree, ? I S S I N G – The Saga Continues
Cade Metz, OpenAI Says Elon Musk Tried to Merge It With Tesla, NYTimes, Mar. 5, 2024: OpenAI, in its first public comments about Elon Musk’s lawsuit against... Read more
Posted on 06 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some This and That, a Mini Cosmos
Posted on 05 March 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Making Connections with ChatGPT: The Macksey Game
In my most recent piece for 3 Quarks Daily, Western Metaphysics is Imploding. Will We Raise a Phoenix from The Ashes? [Catalytic AI], I introduce what I’ve... Read more
Posted on 05 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Take Us to Your Leader
Posted on 05 March 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Last Airbender [Media Notes 113]
I’ve just finished watching The Last Airbender, a 2024 live-action TV series. It’s part of a franchise started by Nickelodeon back in 2005. Read more
Posted on 05 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This is Progress? Yikes! [Houston, Sienna]
The city center of Siena, Italy is home to 30,000 people. It is the same size as a single Houston highway interchange pic.twitter.com/4iuXDRa3mC— Devon... Read more
Posted on 04 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Game Theory in the Movies, Clueless [Michael Chwe]
The lecture starts at about 4:04. Check out my recent post: Game Theory, Jaws, and Girard, with an assist from Lévi-Strauss: A quick sketch. Read more
Posted on 04 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lana & Taylor, Top of the Pop: Left-right, Right-left
Lana, Taylor and anti-institutional realignmentRecently, I watched the Grammys and learned more about Lana Del Rey. I had no idea she was friendly with Taylor... Read more
Posted on 04 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Spirit of El Greco Over Manhattan Yesterday Evening
Posted on 04 March 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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ELIZA's Back: The Original Chatbot
From the website: Welcome to the ELIZA Archaeology Project. This research project brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars, artists, and programmer... Read more
Posted on 04 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken Magic Lights Pier A
Posted on 04 March 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Two Short Notes on Photography: Equipment and Community
Technique, method, equipment Ever since I got “serious” about my photographs, I’ve been a bit self-conscious about my equipment and, yes, I said it, my techniqu... Read more
Posted on 04 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Rating of Academic Fields by Insiders and Outsiders
Philosophy as a field shows other signs of delusion. In a survey asking PhD holders to rate fields by brilliance and importance, philosophy was the most... Read more
Posted on 03 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Six Improvisors on the Continuum
There is an unfortunate tendency to talk of improvisation in jazz as a "pure" act of spontaneous creation, of playing something unlike you'd ever played before... Read more
Posted on 03 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
