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 ( 7846 )
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Peter Thiel on the Western Canon and on A.I.
Tyler Cowen interviews Peter Thiel on various topics. Here’s the introduction: In this conversation recorded live in Miami, Tyler and Peter Thiel dive deep... Read more
Posted on 18 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problem with the AGI Concept
It says that the most important AI system capabilities to create are exactly those things that people can do well. But is this what we want? Is this what we... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pink Sakura
Posted on 17 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Seven Year Itch, Mad Men, Sex and the City [Media Notes 117]
I was, say, half a season in to re-watching Sex and the City, which originally aired from 1998 to 2004, when I watched The Seven Year Itch, a Billy Wilder... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Spots of Color on the Hudson
Posted on 16 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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AI, Chess, and Language 3.3: Chess and Language as Models, a Philosophical...
I now want to take a look at AI, chess, and language from a Piagetian point of view. While he is best known for his work in developmental psychology, Piaget... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mimi and Eunice Ride Again
In 2018 I published these comics, figuring I'd already been canceled so might as well be honest. Not many people saw them, because, you know, canceled. How do... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
First Iris of the Year
I've been photographing irises since 2011. Having any show up in mid-April is unusual. I have an iris photo from April 30, 2021, and three photos from April... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The AI Industry Lacks Useful Ways of Measuring Performance [the Boastful...
Kevin Roose, A.I. Has a Measurement Problem, NYTimes, April 25, 2024. There’s a problem with leading artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and... Read more
Posted on 16 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Yesterday's Flower Walk
Posted on 15 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Paul McCartney Let It Be Hollywood Bowl Jimmy Buffet Tribute 4-11-24 Live...
Listen closely to Sir Paul's voice as he sings. He's singing for a departed friend, Jimmy Buffet, and is skating at the edge of breaking down in tears. But he... Read more
Posted on 14 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mist on the Hudson
Posted on 14 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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A Quick Note on Software, Civilization, and AI
Just around the corner at Strange Loop Canon Rohit Krishnan has an interesting “Ode to software.” Some bits: Total man hours invested Software is also incredibl... Read more
Posted on 14 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trees & Moss [North]
Posted on 13 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Intellectual Monoculture That Dominates Current AI Research
The 12 types of ML papers. (created by @natashajaques @maxhkw)#MachineLearning #ML #DataScience pic.twitter.com/ygZmekckER— MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) April 13, Read more
Posted on 13 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
One Study Shows That Male Bonobos Engage in Violence More Often, Though Less...
Phie Jacobs, Bonobos, the ‘hippie chimps,’ might not be so mellow after all, Science, April, 12, 2024. Chimps (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) are... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tulips
Posted on 13 April 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Dario Amodei on "AGI" and the Exponential Curve [Beware the Intellectual...
Ezra Klein, What if Dario Amodei Is Right About A.I.?NYTimes, Apr. 12, 2024. AGI Let's skip over a lot of stuff to get to AGI: EZRA KLEIN: You don’t love the... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Colt Clark and the Quarantine Kids Play "Born to Be Wild"
Here's a post I did about them back in June of 2021. Back then Bellamy's role was simply to front the band by announcing the tunes, dancing around, and doing... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Age at Which Thinkers Make Pioneering Contributions to Science is Now...
What burden of knowledge, you ask?(You can explore the amazing Roche biochemical pathway charts here, with some annotations: https://t.co/CjfYyPVqut)... Read more
Posted on 12 April 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
