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 ( 7623 )
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ChatGPT’s Ontological Landscape
I've published a new working paper. Title above, links, abstract, table of contents, and introduction below: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 01 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On Parade in Hoboken, NJ [All Hallows Eve]
Posted on 01 November 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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A Deceased Mathematician, Miriam Lipschutz Yevick, Replies to a Pontificating...
I don’t believe Andreesen has actually graced us with his thoughts on humanity as a whole, but I’m taking his recent capacious The Techno-Optimist Manifesto as ... Read more
Posted on 01 November 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Israel/Palestine and Conflict at the Core of the World: "When You Get into This...
This is a tremendous read.De Villepin may have been the best President France never had. He is always truly running rings around any media interlocutor. In an... Read more
Posted on 31 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is It a Space Alien, an AGI, Or Both?
Posted on 31 October 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Kristin Thompson on Best Film Oscars in Recent Years
Kristen Thompson, “Best Picture” ≠ “Live Action,”Observations on film art, July 8, 2023. Opening paragraphs: Way back in 2006, I posted a long piece on th... Read more
Posted on 31 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Miriam Lipschutz Yevick Was Jewish
Obviously, her name proclaims it. That’s not what I mean. Not long after I’d started reading her memoire, A Testament for Ariela, I was struck: This is the... Read more
Posted on 30 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Transmission Versus Truth, Imitation Versus Innovation: Children Vs. LLMs
Yiu, E., Kosoy, E., Gopnik, A. (2023). Transmission Versus Truth, Imitation Versus Innovation: What Children Can Do That Large Language and Language-and-Visio... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What’s Going On? Antisemitism is Breaking out All Over. Why?
The ostensible reason is Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 4 assault. I wonder, though. I suspect something more complex is going on. This is from today’s... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sabine Hossenfelder on Climate Change [opportunity Cost]
She's got a thread on X, aka The Site Formerly Known as Twitter. Here's her first Xcerpt: I really feel like there are a lot of people who cannot grasp why... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Unfortunate Circumstances
Posted on 29 October 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Youth Quake Africa: By 2050 One Person in Four Will Be African [Kisangani 2150]
Declan Walsh, The World Is Becoming More African, NYTimes, Oct. 28, 2023. Opening paragraphs: Astonishing change is underway in Africa, where the population is... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
ChatGPT Discourses Learnedly on Decorative Facial Hair
So, my good buddy Adam Roberts, ran up this most interesting tweet, to which I replied: "Decorative facial hair," now there's a phrase you don't hear every... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
No, LLMs Do Not Have a So-called Theory of Mind
Hyunwoo Kim, Melanie Sclar, Xuhui Zhou, Ronan Le Bras, Gunhee Kim, Yejin Choi, Maarten Sap, FANToM: A Benchmark for Stress-testing Machine Theory of Mind in... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Prefrontal Cortex-inspired Architecture for Planning in LLMS
đ§ Exciting new work w @TaylorWWebb @ShankaMondal @MSFTResearchA Prefrontal Cortex-inspired Architecture for Planning in... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jake Browning: Generative AI is Boring [agreed]
First paragraph: Now that the dust has settled and the hype has died down (except on Twitter), we can give a verdict: generative AI is boring. Read more
Posted on 27 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Mighty Art Ensemble of Chicage, with Guests, Berlin, Oct. 31, 1991
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Lester Bowie - trumpet Roscoe Mitchell - saxophones, percussion Joseph Jarman - saxophones, percussion Malachi Favors Maghostut - bass... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Pot Luck
Posted on 27 October 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Miriam Yevick on Her Colleague, Agnes Berger – Ein Kultivierter Mensch
From a piece Yevick wrote about a recently-deceased friend: Memoir: To Agnes Berger (1916-2002) and Our Friendship, Newsletter, Association for Women in... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ezra Klein on Andreesen's Reactionary Futurism [Starship Troopers]
Ezra Klein, The Reactionary Futurism of Marc Andreessen, NYTimes, Ocr. 26, 2023. Now Andreessen has distilled the whole ideology to a procession of stark... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
