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 ( 7792 )
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AI Spending is out of Control [Ahab in Pursuit of Moby Dick]
Karen Weise, A.I. Spending Sets a Record, With No End in Sight, NYTimes, April 29, 2026. For the past two years, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have... Read more
Posted on 30 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Excerpts from Séb Krier's Omni-Thread from February
https://x.com/sebkrier/status/2018351274127962300?s=20 1. Existing models will continue improving and getting better. And they will continue to be trained... Read more
Posted on 29 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Orange Juice and an Omlette
Posted on 29 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Does Peter Thiel Think He's GOD? [Pope Leo XIV and AI]
You Tube:Jon Favreau is joined by Christopher Hale to discuss Pope Leo XIV's warnings against A.I. Is the internet slowly breaking our brains, and if so, what... Read more
Posted on 29 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
River and Shore
Posted on 28 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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On Method: Computational Compressibility in Complex Natural and Cultural...
New working paper. Title above, abstract, contents, and introduction below: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 28 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Platonic Representation Hypothesis [Not Surprising]
MIT proved every major AI model is secretly converging on the same "brain."It’s called the “platonic representation hypothesis,” and it’s one of the most... Read more
Posted on 28 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Those New AI Metrics: From AGI to Bragawatts
Erin Griffith, How Do You Measure A.I. Firms’ Gargantuan Energy Plans? In ‘Bragawatts.’ NYTimes, April 26, 2026 The term started more than a decade ago in the... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Play of Light on a Wall
Posted on 27 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Perhaps Ukraine Has Replaced America as Leader of the Free World
David French, Meet the New Leader of the Free World, NYTimes, Apr. 26, 2026. A remarkable thing has happened on the world’s battlefields. Read more
Posted on 27 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Waffles for Breakfast
Posted on 26 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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A Case for Regulating AI
Paul Ford, Can an A.I. Company Ever Be Good? NYTimes, Apr. 26, 2026. Artificial intelligence can be wondrous, but the technology underneath is more than a littl... Read more
Posted on 26 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pink Cherry Blossoms
Posted on 25 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Remarkable Though They Are, LLMs Aren't All That, and Probably Never Will Be. Bu...
Are LLMs really more important than fire or electricity?“Honestly, a ton of what we’ve developed in my lifetime amounts to scaling up the delivery of informatio... Read more
Posted on 25 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
When the Cat Chooses You
I do not have a cat. I’ve never had a cat, and yet this cat came by randomly (no idea where from) and came into my house. Do I now have a cat? Is that how it... Read more
Posted on 25 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Moving Beyond Trump to a Brave New World
Some Young People Think No Kings Is Old News, NYTimes, April 24, 2026. On April 14 Thomas B. Edsall published an op-ed entitled, Why Aren’t the Kids Out... Read more
Posted on 25 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Recursive Language Models, a Very Clever Workaround
MIT just made every AI company's billion dollar bet look embarrassing.They solved AI memory. Not by building a bigger brain. By teaching it how to read.The pape... Read more
Posted on 24 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: To and from
Posted on 24 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Yann LeCun Clarifies the Record
1. I never said LLMs were not useful. They are, particularly with all the bells and whistles that are being added to them. I use them.2. Read more
Posted on 24 April 2026 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Shots of an Egg White Omlette
Posted on 23 April 2026
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
