Bbenzon
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 ( 6461 )
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What Are the Chances That the Current Boom in AI Will “stupidify” Us Back to...
That’s my intuitive response to an op-ed by Eric Hoel in today’s NYTimes: A.I.-Generated Garbage Is Polluting Our Culture (March 29, 2024). I suppose that... Read more
Posted on 29 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Wall
Posted on 28 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fareed Zakaria on Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations"
Tyler Cowen interviews Fareed Zakaria. Those who know Fareed Zakaria through his weekly column or CNN show may be surprised to learn he considers books the... Read more
Posted on 28 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ramble on ChatGPT; Chess, Language, & AI; and Harold Bloom (Great Lit Critics)
I’m stuck on three substantial projects. Two of them, ChatGPT and Great Literary Critics were supposed to be finished sometime in January. Both were mentioned i... Read more
Posted on 27 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flowers Against Diverse Backgrounds
Posted on 27 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Further Impressions: Orgasm and Beyond
I'm bumping this to the head of the queue on general principle. This is from the first year of the blog (August 29, 2010). I'd completely forgotten about this.... Read more
Posted on 27 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dream Stars in Hoboken
Posted on 26 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
MacArthur Fellows, 1981-2018: Gender, Race and Educational Attainment
Kaba, A. J. (2020). MacArthur Fellows, 1981-2018: Gender, Race and Educational Attainment. Sociol- ogy Mind, 10, 86-126. https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2020. Read more
Posted on 26 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dreaming Birds
Maria Popova, Do Birds Dream? NYTimes, March 26, 2024. A study of zebra finches — songbirds whose repertoire is learned, not hard-wired — mapped particular note... Read more
Posted on 26 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Back to Basics
Posted on 25 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Thirteen Ways to Think About an A.I. @3QD
Sometimes they come hard, and sometimes they come easy – I’m referring to long-form blog posts, here at New Savanna, but especially once-a-month... Read more
Posted on 25 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nobel Laureate, Angus Deaton is Having Doubts About Economics
Angus Deaton, Rethinking my Economics, Finance and Development, International Monetary Fund, March 2024. Economics has achieved much; there are large bodies of... Read more
Posted on 24 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What's College For, Anyhow? [Do They Study at Harvard?]
Aden Barton, AWOL from Academics, Harvard Magazine, March-April 2024. I recently started using an application that tracks my work, producing weekly summaries... Read more
Posted on 23 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fecundity and Implementation in a Complex Universe
I'm bumping this post from October 2011 to the top of the queue for two reasons: 1) in its discussion of abundance it contains seeds to the idea of arena,... Read more
Posted on 23 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Foto: Memories of 51 Pacific
Posted on 22 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
ChatGPT on a Remark Leonard Bernstein Made to Duke Ellington [intention,...
I have been arguing recently that meaning consists of intentionality and semanticity, where intentionality inheres in the relationship between the... Read more
Posted on 21 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Look Who Came to Dinner: The Harlem Renaissance [100 Years Ago Today]
Veronica Chambers and Michelle May-Curry, The Dinner Party That Started the Harlem Renaissance, NYTimes, March 21, 2024. On March 21, 1924, Jessie Fauset sat... Read more
Posted on 21 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Our Need for Meaning and Coherence
Steven J Heine, Travis Proulx, Kathleen Vohs, The Meaning Maintenance Model: On the Coherence of Social Motivations, Personality and Social Psychology Review... Read more
Posted on 21 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is It Time to Disrupt the Disrupters?
Ashley Goodall, Mass Tech Layoffs? Just Another Day in the Corporate Blender. NYTimes, March 21, 2024. The article begins by talking about the current Silicon... Read more
Posted on 21 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Are We Facing Collapse Through Complexity?
We are seeing Joseph Tainter's "Collapse of Complex Societies" thesis playing out in real-time.A complex society trying to solve problems by adding more... Read more
Posted on 21 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY