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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Kurt Vonnegut on the Value of Making Your Own Art of Whatever Kind
I first saw this letter in a Facebook group, but it seems it's a well-known letter and is all over the internet. Click on the image to enlarge it. Read more
Posted on 28 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Still More Flowers
Posted on 28 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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R U Looking for a Primer on Fusion Power?
Brian Potter, Will We Ever Get Fusion Power? Construction Physics, June 26, 2024. This is a good one, though a bit long. Potter goes through the history and... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The African Queen [Media Notes 133]
I don’t know what I think about this movie, The African Queen. It’s from 1951, stars Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, was directed by John Houston, and wa... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken Irises
Posted on 26 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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On the Success of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK
Luka Gebel, Chander Velu Antonio Vidal-Puig, The strategy behind one of the most successful labs in the world, Nature, Vol 630 | 27 June 2024,... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Harold Bloom Discusses Bud Powell and Influence in Jazz
The discussion of Bud Powell starts about 43:00. At 47:00 of so there's an explicit discussion of influence and competition. He's right, cutting contests are... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adam Savage Swallows a Camera Robot
From the YouTube page: This may be the smallest remote controlled robot we've covered on Tested. Adam visits the workshop of Endiatx, the makers of the Pillbot... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What We Got Wrong About Depression and Its Treatment
Steven D. Hollon, What we got wrong about depression and its treatment, Behaviour Research and Therapy, Volume 180, 2024, 104599, ISSN 0005-7967,... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bloom on Shakespeare [persistence of Identity] {the Last Mile}
The key point (01:57) I think that Shakespeare had the first sense I know of what he actually called the self-same which is the persistence of identity through... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bacon! Bacon! My Kingdom for a Slab of Bacon! [counterpoint to AI Rant]
Posted on 25 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Adobe Backlash [what Hath AI Wrought?]
It seems that Adobe has been receiving quite a bit of backlash against changes it’s made to its terms of service, changes having to do with Adobe using... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Control Theory, Prompt Engineering, and GPT [stories]
As a student of the work of William Powers I have long standing interest in control theory. It’s central to my conception of how the mind works. Read more
Posted on 24 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From mid-April [tulips]
Posted on 24 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Are Book Clubs on the Rise?
This is what got me started: Blair Sobol, No Holds Barred: Booked and Hooked on Families, New York Social Diary, June 21, 2024. The other side of the book... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neil deGrasse Tyson Has an Interesting Thought Experiment About Probability &...
Over the years I've watched a good number of YouTube clips in which Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about this that and the other. I've developed a great deal of... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Greatest Night in Pop [Media Notes 132]
The Greatest Night in Pop (2024) is a documentary about making “We Are the World” in 1985. Harry Belafonte initiated the project in December of 1984 and it was... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Evaluating the World Model Implicit in a Generative Model
Keyon Vafa, Justin Y. Chen, Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, Ashesh Rambachan, Evaluating the World Model Implicit in a Generative Model, arXiv:2406.03689v1. Read more
Posted on 23 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What LLMs Can and Can't Do
He also builds his own ideas, which feature minor original inventions. Like this "jeep" which has a spare tire on the back -- not something he saw in any... Read more
Posted on 23 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Another Diebenkorn Photo, My First
Almost two weeks ago I posted a photo that I’d entitled “Diebenkorn on the table-top.” It was shot looking through two screen-covered windows taken from a camer... Read more
Posted on 22 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
