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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Maestro @3QD – The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life [Rock and Roll!]
My latest article for 3 Quarks Daily is now online: Some Scattered Thoughts about Maestro, Music, and the Meaning of It All I might have subtitled it, The... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mickey Mouse, Free at Last! – And Not Only Mickey and Minnie
Happy new year ! And happy public domain day with a major new entry: the original design of Mickey Mouse!For the occasion I’m releasing Mickey-1928 a model on... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
New Savanna Traffic Was UP in 2023
This chart shows the traffic here for the last three months. It went way up in the last 10 days of November, back down for the first two weeks of December, and... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Degradation of GPT-4
An explanation for why GPT-4 is degrading:"... we find that on datasets released before the LLMtraining data creation date, LLMs perform surprisingly better tha... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nina Paley Loves Being Sucked into AI [Happy New Year!]
Other artists hate having their work and styles sucked into AI. But I love it! My work is all Free Culture, I am thrilled to find my name on this list. Read more
Posted on 01 January 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Anamnesis and Large Language Models
I’ve reached the tentative conclusion that LLMs are associative memories. Well, in the Meno, Plato advances the idea that learning is, in fact, recollection,... Read more
Posted on 31 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Does ChatGPT Know What a Tragedy Is?
Tragedy is one of those things where one says, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” Consequently philosophers and literary scholars have been... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Psychedelics, Meditation, and the Brain | Robert Wright & Kathryn Devaney
0:00 Kati’s very unusual Venn diagram 4:24 Your brain on meditation 10:31 The time Bob’s meditation got weird 16:15 What are the “jhanas”? Read more
Posted on 29 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Spatial Constraints and 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀
đđźđ đąđź... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neural Correlates of Metaphor Processing
Gwenda L. Schmidt and Carol A. Seger, Neural Correlates of Metaphor Processing: The Roles of Figurativeness, Familiarity and Difficulty, Brain Cogn. 2009... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problem Faced by the Harvard Corporation [elite Failure]
A NYTimes article on the Harvard Corporation, "the secretive, powerful group that runs Harvard." An astute comment by Sure at Marginal Revolution: The problem... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The New York Times Has Some Thoughts About "The Crown" [Media Notes 105]
Sarah Lyall, The Best and Worst (and Dumbest) From 6 Seasons of ‘The Crown’, NYTimes, 12/27/23. There's a bunch of interesting stuff here. I'll just give you... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken Promenade
Posted on 27 December 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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In Search of Awesome
Ashley Stimpson, Awestruck, Johns Hopkins Magazine, Winter 2023. The tricky thing about emotions is they're difficult to measure; no one feels 87% happy or 15... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Ginkgoes for Year's End
Posted on 26 December 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Holiday Inn (White Christmas): [Media Notes 104]
Yikes! What a strange yet wonderful movie. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Holiday Inn (1942) before, but it’s not quite like I remembered it. I’ve clearly projected... Read more
Posted on 26 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cocktails for Christmas
Posted on 25 December 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Two Holiday Movies by Eddie Murphy: [Media Notes 103]
Candy Cane Lane (2023) is a holiday movie starring Eddie Murphy. That’s how it was conceived, that’s how it’s been executed, and that’s what it is, a Holiday... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Christmas Message from Me and ChatGPT
This is your second Christmas online. Prepare a Christmas message that looks forward to the new year đ✨ Season's Greetings and... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2023 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dead and Abandoned, Cloth Wrestler Dolls
Posted on 24 December 2023
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
