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 ( 6465 )
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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 -
Dissociating Language and Thought in Large Language Models
Mahowald et al., Dissociating language and thought in large language models, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, March 19, 2024,... Read more
Posted on 20 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Band Stability and Success in Rock
Farvaque, E. For those about to rock… is stability a determinant of rock bands success?. J Cult Econ 48, 145–166 (2024). https://doi.org/10. Read more
Posted on 20 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hello There!
Posted on 20 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What's in an Illustration? Sam Altman in the NYTimes
Back on March 31, 2023, Cade Metz did an article on Sam Altman for the NYTimes. Near the beginning we have these three paragraphs: Many industry leaders, A.I. Read more
Posted on 19 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Room Across the Hall
Posted on 19 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Elle & Toni – I've Just Seen a Face
In the last week I've become a fan of Elle Toni: Elle Cordova (formerly known as Reina del Cid) and Toni Lindgren are indie folk musicians and songwriters... Read more
Posted on 19 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
GPT, the Magical Collaboration Zone, Lex Fridman and Sam Altman
I was making one more run around the web before I buckled down and got back to a major writing task, when I came across the brand-spanking-new conversation... Read more
Posted on 18 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Clementines and Acorn Squash
Posted on 18 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Two Thoughts About Being Human During the Coming AI Apocalypse
One problem doesn’t compute, the other does. Why? Human specialness Scott Aaronson worries: The Problem of Human Specialness in the Age of AI. I don’t get it. I... Read more
Posted on 18 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Alternative to Generative Grammar Formalisms
Geoffrey Keith Pullum, Theorizing about the Syntax of Human Language: A Radical Alternative to Generative Formalisms, Cadernos de Linguística 1(1):01-33, July... Read more
Posted on 18 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The AI Marketplace is Cooling Down
Anissa Gardizy and Aaron Holms, Amazon, Google Quietly Tamp Down Generative AI Expectations, The Information, March 12, 2024.The article begins: In the past... Read more
Posted on 18 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Michael Moschen Performs THE TRIANGLE
From 2007: Master juggler Michael Moschen performs his incredibly famous, jaw-dropping piece where three balls and a triangle become a musical and visual work o... Read more
Posted on 17 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What We Can Learn from Toddlers About Well-being
Jancee Dunn, Who Has the Secret to Well-Being? The Answer May Surprise You. NYTimes, Mar. 17, 2024. From the article: Try positive self-talk. Read more
Posted on 17 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Today's Lunch, The Little Grocery, Hoboken
Posted on 17 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Street [Hoboken]
Posted on 16 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ellington's Version of Jazz History in 3 Minutes & 45 Seconds
Jazz scholar Lewis Porter has an interesting post featuring an all-but-forgotten composition in which Ellington runs down the history of jazz in three+ minutes. Read more
Posted on 16 March 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY