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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Friday Fotos: From Yesterday's Walk from North Hoboken to the Terminal
Posted on 01 March 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Some Thoughts on Maestro, Ethical Criticism, and Calibration [Media Notes 102d]
I have now posted various materials about Maestro, including a number of YouTube reviews as well as three posts I’ve written about the film. Read more
Posted on 01 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Fun with a Hydraulic Press That Can Generate 300 Tons of Pressure – Crushin...
Can you press steel screws or bolts and nuts back to solid piece of metal using our new 300 ton hydraulic press? We will find that out on this experiment! Read more
Posted on 29 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Did You Know That Tulips Track the Sun Across the Sky? [phototropism]
Posted on 29 February 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Intelligence is a Process
That's the title of the most recent blog post by Arnold Kling. In the case of artificial intelligence, we have a problem. There is no clear, settled definition... Read more
Posted on 29 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Power, Persuasion, and Influence in The Valley
Henry Farrell has a new post at Crooked Timber: Dr. Pangloss’s Panopticon (Feb. 27, 2024). He's replying to Noah Smith's negative review of Acemoglu and Johnson... Read more
Posted on 28 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
“NATURALIST” Criticism, NOT “cognitive,” NOT “Darwinian” – A Quasi-Manifesto
I've posted a new paper to the web, title above, links and preface below: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 28 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Do These 2 Things Have in Common?
Posted on 28 February 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Evo, a Genomic Foundation Model That Learns Across the Fundamental Languages of...
This was a wonderful collaboration with @BrianHie led by @exnx, @MichaelPoli6, and @mgdurrantBlog: https://t.co/z4Fsln2SrRPreprint: https://t. Read more
Posted on 28 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has the Pandemic “broken the Back” of 9 to 5?
John Quiggin at Crooked Timber, Back to the office: a solution in search of a problem (2.27.24): Once the lockdown phase of the pandemic was over, workers were... Read more
Posted on 27 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Fastest Way to AGI: LLMs + Tree Search [Neuro-symbolic]
Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind CEO) About 0:23: ....we've got to carry on um basically making the more and more accurate predictors of the world so in effect... Read more
Posted on 27 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AI and Intellectual Integration @3QD
I have a new article up at 3 Quarks Daily: Western Metaphysics is Imploding. Will We Raise a Phoenix from The Ashes? [Catalytic AI], https://3quarksdaily. Read more
Posted on 27 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Time for Something Different! Pizza and Fanta Orange, Hegelian Style: Thesis,...
Posted on 27 February 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Adventures of Task-Force Tim: An Allegory About the Current Effort to...
John Sowa is an Old School AI researcher who spent his career at IBM until retired. Since then he’s pursued various projects in AI (see this video, Evaluating... Read more
Posted on 27 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Marc Andreessen on His Intellectual Journey the Past Ten Years
From the YouTube page: Marc Andreessen of a16z sits with Erik Torenberg to go deeper into his intellectual and political journey, and his quest to find out how... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Energy Costs of Generative AI Are Currently Large Enough to Impact the...
David Derreby, The Growing Environmental Footprint Of Generative AI, Undark, Feb, 20, 24. One of the things that David Hays impressed on me when I studied with... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
NYC is the World's Capital of Endangered Languages.
Alex Carp, The Endangered Languages of New York, NYTimes, Feb. 22, 2024. Most people think of endangered languages as far-flung or exotic, the opposite of... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Human Challenge of a Mission to Mars
Nathaniel Rich, Can Humans Endure the Psychological Torment of Mars?, The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 25, 2024. From the article: That people will travel to... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Here's That Rainy Day – Follow the Red Umbrella
Posted on 26 February 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Entropy and Self-Organization on the Table Top [Emergence]
I'm bumping this to the top of the queue: 1) on general principle, and 2) because I was going to include some of this material in a paper that goes up on 3... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
