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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The Primal Scene of Artificial Intelligence
I've grabbed this from Cosma Shalizi:Herbert Simon recalls running Logic Theorist for the first time: Al [Newell] and I wrote out the rules for the components o... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories & Their Role in Developing the Self
Dubourg, Edgar, Valentin Thouzeau, Beuchot Thomas, Constant Bonard, Pascal Boyer, Mathias Clasen, Melusine Boon-Falleur, et al. 2024. “The Cognitive... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Israeli Looks at Gaza | Robert Wright & Russ Roberts
1:51 How Israelis think about civilian casualties in Gaza 20:47 Is the war spawning a new generation of terrorists? 34:39 Explaining versus justifying bad... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Arithmetic in Early Modern England
Jay Hancock reviews Jessica Marie Otis, By the Numbers: Numeracy, Religion, and the Quantitative Transformation of Early Modern England (Oxford UP 2024) (H/t... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunrise on a Variety of Buildings, Some Iconic, Some Not
Posted on 28 January 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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THC Harms Human Parasites
Why do essentially all adults use "recreational" drugs on a near daily basis? The standard story is that they hijack dopaminergic reward circuits. Read more
Posted on 28 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Patrick Henry Winston, “The Next 50 Years: A Personal View”
Winston, Patrick Henry. “The Next 50 years: A Personal View.” Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures 1 (July 2012): 92–99. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. Read more
Posted on 28 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Synaptic Pruning Visualized
Real #FluorescenceFriday this time, with a fresh photo from the microscopy showing one of my favorite events in the brain: synaptic pruning! Read more
Posted on 27 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Peekaboo [on the Waterfront]
Posted on 27 January 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Implant Able to Record Single-neuron Activity of Neural Populations Over Long...
Leah Burrows, Researchers develop implantable device that can record a collection of individual neurons over months, PhysOrg, Jan. 26, 2024. Read more
Posted on 27 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
We're Witnessing the Recurrence of Apocalyptic Fears [elite Panics]
Tyler Austin Harper, The 100-Year Extinction Panic Is Back, Right on Schedule, NYTimes, Jan. 26. 2024. Climate anxiety, of the sort expressed by that student, i... Read more
Posted on 26 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Men at Work [ZAR & ICHI]
Posted on 26 January 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Invariance and Compression in LLMs
One way to thinking about what transformers do is compression. OK. The transformer performs a simple operation on a corpus of texts in such a way that some... Read more
Posted on 26 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Carl Barks is the Duck Master
I remember going to the dentist as a kid. The dentist generally had a stack of comic books. I used to love the Donald Duck comics and still have vague memories... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Young Composer Considers His Craft
There's definite order what young Gavriil does here. He starts with some not-quite-random plinking. He (obviously) hears something and sets out to explore it... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On Differences in Criminal Codes Across Red and Blue States
Tyler Cowen listed much, but not all, of the abstract for "Red Codes, Blue Codes? Factors Influencing the Formulation of Criminal Law Rules" in a recent post.... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dan Wang on Chinese Expatriates in Thailand. [Whole Earth Revival]
From his 2023 letter, leaving China: China may have hit its GDP growth target of 5 percent this year, but its main stock index has fallen -17% since the start o... Read more
Posted on 24 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hat Waffle Bacon
Posted on 23 January 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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GOAT Literary Critics: Part 3.1, René Girard Prepares the Way for the French...
I had originally intended this essay to cover three thinkers, René Girard, Jacques Derrida, and Claude Lévi-Strauss. As I began working on it the thinking grew... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Speculation About Maestro's Oscars Prospects
Oscar nominations have been announced. Maestro has been nominated in the following categories: Best picture Best actor, Bradley Cooper Best actress, Cary... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
