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 Study of Rhetoric as a Route to Cognitive Empathy?
John Bowe, An Ancient Solution to Our Current Crisis of Disconnection, NYTimes, Nov. 27, 2023. While rhetoric had its detractors, starting with Plato, Bowe... Read more
Posted on 28 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
One Man in 200 is Descended from Gengis Khan [Kubla Was His Grandson]
Genghis Khan, manspreading like the ancients https://t.co/mILkyM1x0H In 2003, a bombshell paper reported that one in 200 men worldwide, and 10% of Central... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Computational Complexity is Irrelevant for LLMs
as discussed here.. https://t.co/hn3L39t2gz— Subbarao Kambhampati (కంభంపాటి... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Shadow Play
Posted on 27 November 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Music and Meaning in an Age of Intelligent Machines [Keil, Yes! Thiel, No!]
Tara Isabella Burton has recently published an essay in which she critiques the ideas of Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist, billionaire, and prominent Silicon... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Utagawa Hiroshige, Eight Shadow Figures, a Commentary on Plato
Utagawa Hiroshige, Eight Shadow Figures, ca. 1842. ⠀⠀One of several Hiroshige images available as prints to buy from our online shop... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sabine Hossenfelder: AI is Systemic Change, a Huge One at That.
Her tweet: We need to stop obsessing about the perceived shortcomings or virtues of individuals. The relevant changes in human society are systemic.... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken: The Sweep of the City
Posted on 26 November 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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ChatGPT Writes a Sonnet on Recursion Based on a Text by St. Augustine [AI Theory]
Do you recognize this passage? The power of memory is prodigious, my God. It is a vast immeasurable sanctuary. Who can plumb its depths? And yet it is a... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Orca 2 Joins the Open Source Movement in AI
Here's the abstract from the Orca 2 paper referenced in the video: Orca 1 learns from rich signals, such as explanation traces, allowing it to outperform... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
For the Birds
Posted on 25 November 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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On Possible Cross-fertilization Between AI and Neuroscience
MIT Center for Minds, Brains, and Machines (CBMM), a panel discussion: CBMM10 - A Symposium on Intelligence: Brains, Minds, and Machines. Read more
Posted on 25 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Reaping Profits Before the End of the World
21 years ahead of its time. By @BobMankoff @NewYorker pic.twitter.com/CZEuLqpGNy— Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus) November 24, Read more
Posted on 24 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Variety Pack
Posted on 24 November 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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We’ll Have a Reasonable Model of How LLMs Function Before We Reach AGI
I understand that the concept of AGI is vague, but a lot of smart people have a lot invested in it and in making predictions about when we’ll construct one.... Read more
Posted on 24 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Napping is Good
I've believed that since I was quite young. I nap all the time. Now the NYTimes has an article in which experts advise on the proper way to nap. Read more
Posted on 24 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A World Without (what Kind Of?) Work
Rachel Fraser, Can We Imagine a World Without Work? Boston Review, Nov. 21, 2023. Reproductive labor: Cleaning, like cooking, childbearing, and breastfeeding, i... Read more
Posted on 23 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Benchmarks for General AI Assistants
GAIA: a benchmark for General AI Assistantspaper page: https://t.co/QjhBaRMvqNintroduce GAIA, a benchmark for General AI Assistants that, if solved, would... Read more
Posted on 23 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Thanksgiving 2017 with the Barnett Family and Friends
Posted on 23 November 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Intelligence Requires Agency
Kevin J. Mitchell, Why free will is required for true artificial intelligence, excerpted from FREE AGENTS: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will, Princeton... Read more
Posted on 23 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
