Peter Godfrey-Smith
@petergs.bsky.social
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Just read this old-school sci-fi gem I found in a vintage bookstore in Bologna, where a Practical Philosopher Corps is deployed across the galaxy to assess sentience and cognition in alien species.
I guess the dream job for @birchlse.bsky.social @petergs.bsky.social
I guess the dream job for @birchlse.bsky.social @petergs.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Just read this old-school sci-fi gem I found in a vintage bookstore in Bologna, where a Practical Philosopher Corps is deployed across the galaxy to assess sentience and cognition in alien species.
I guess the dream job for @birchlse.bsky.social @petergs.bsky.social
I guess the dream job for @birchlse.bsky.social @petergs.bsky.social
Driving down the east side of the Sierra Nevadas a few weeks ago. I keep coming back here.
October 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Driving down the east side of the Sierra Nevadas a few weeks ago. I keep coming back here.
In the @nybooks.com, a review by Verlyn Klinkenborg of all three books of the 'Other Minds' trilogy, plus David Scheel's octopus book and one by Craig Foster (of 'My Octopus Teacher').
Quite an armful. (Image by Jason Logan.) 1/
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Quite an armful. (Image by Jason Logan.) 1/
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
‘Such Flexible Intensity of Life’ | Verlyn Klinkenborg
Their striking intelligence makes octopuses tempting subjects for wishful anthropomorphism and uncanny reminders of nature’s mysteries.
www.nybooks.com
October 17, 2025 at 6:54 AM
In the @nybooks.com, a review by Verlyn Klinkenborg of all three books of the 'Other Minds' trilogy, plus David Scheel's octopus book and one by Craig Foster (of 'My Octopus Teacher').
Quite an armful. (Image by Jason Logan.) 1/
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Quite an armful. (Image by Jason Logan.) 1/
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Australian whale populations – what a pleasure to read this.
October 11, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Australian whale populations – what a pleasure to read this.
Weather coming in over Eagle Lake, (California, near Tahoe), last week.
October 10, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Weather coming in over Eagle Lake, (California, near Tahoe), last week.
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
"Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World" by @petergs.bsky.social (published by William Collins) has been shortlisted for the 2025 Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy.
Learn more: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/shortli...
Learn more: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/shortli...
October 6, 2025 at 9:18 AM
"Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World" by @petergs.bsky.social (published by William Collins) has been shortlisted for the 2025 Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy.
Learn more: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/shortli...
Learn more: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/shortli...
A century in the making - this week's University of Virginia conference on John Dewey's "Experience and Nature" (1925). A majestic, frustrating, (endless) book.
Event organized by @cbarzun.bsky.social www.law.virginia.edu/event/sympos... 1/
Event organized by @cbarzun.bsky.social www.law.virginia.edu/event/sympos... 1/
September 16, 2025 at 5:32 PM
A century in the making - this week's University of Virginia conference on John Dewey's "Experience and Nature" (1925). A majestic, frustrating, (endless) book.
Event organized by @cbarzun.bsky.social www.law.virginia.edu/event/sympos... 1/
Event organized by @cbarzun.bsky.social www.law.virginia.edu/event/sympos... 1/
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Come to Melbourne for the 2025 Conference of the Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Check out the great keynotes - submit your abstract
Come join this exciting community of researchers
Nov 24-25 - Register now!
#philosophy #neuroskyence #philsky
sites.google.com/monash.edu/a...
Check out the great keynotes - submit your abstract
Come join this exciting community of researchers
Nov 24-25 - Register now!
#philosophy #neuroskyence #philsky
sites.google.com/monash.edu/a...
ASPP 2025 Melbourne
Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology 2025 Conference
Melbourne, November 24th - 25th, 2025
sites.google.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Come to Melbourne for the 2025 Conference of the Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Check out the great keynotes - submit your abstract
Come join this exciting community of researchers
Nov 24-25 - Register now!
#philosophy #neuroskyence #philsky
sites.google.com/monash.edu/a...
Check out the great keynotes - submit your abstract
Come join this exciting community of researchers
Nov 24-25 - Register now!
#philosophy #neuroskyence #philsky
sites.google.com/monash.edu/a...
Later this month I am giving the 2025 Howison Lecture at UC Berkeley.
"Evolution and Animal Minds."
It will have quite a lot on recent work looking at play and dreams in nonhumans. 1/
"Evolution and Animal Minds."
It will have quite a lot on recent work looking at play and dreams in nonhumans. 1/
September 5, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Later this month I am giving the 2025 Howison Lecture at UC Berkeley.
"Evolution and Animal Minds."
It will have quite a lot on recent work looking at play and dreams in nonhumans. 1/
"Evolution and Animal Minds."
It will have quite a lot on recent work looking at play and dreams in nonhumans. 1/
One of a quartet of gang-gang cockatoos that came to visit last week. Very uncommon visitors, very welcome.
July 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
One of a quartet of gang-gang cockatoos that came to visit last week. Very uncommon visitors, very welcome.
A good AI piece by James Gleick at @nybooks.com
Aghast, for good reason, at what's happening.
My only objection: a title unfair to parrots.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Aghast, for good reason, at what's happening.
My only objection: a title unfair to parrots.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Parrot in the Machine | James Gleick
The artificial intelligence industry depends on plagiarism, mimicry, and exploited labor, not intelligence.
www.nybooks.com
July 17, 2025 at 8:43 AM
A good AI piece by James Gleick at @nybooks.com
Aghast, for good reason, at what's happening.
My only objection: a title unfair to parrots.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Aghast, for good reason, at what's happening.
My only objection: a title unfair to parrots.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
A Giant Cuttlefish at Cabbage Tree Bay (the "Bower" dive site, Australia) last month. Perfect conditions that day.
I wrote a blog post about the encounters: metazoan.net/124-bower-cu...
One very relaxed cuttlefish, one very wild one.
I wrote a blog post about the encounters: metazoan.net/124-bower-cu...
One very relaxed cuttlefish, one very wild one.
July 13, 2025 at 2:25 AM
A Giant Cuttlefish at Cabbage Tree Bay (the "Bower" dive site, Australia) last month. Perfect conditions that day.
I wrote a blog post about the encounters: metazoan.net/124-bower-cu...
One very relaxed cuttlefish, one very wild one.
I wrote a blog post about the encounters: metazoan.net/124-bower-cu...
One very relaxed cuttlefish, one very wild one.
Summer reading from the radio station KQED (@kqedarts.bsky.social) – *all* of the 'Other Minds' trilogy.
www.kqed.org/forum/201010...
www.kqed.org/forum/201010...
July 1, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Summer reading from the radio station KQED (@kqedarts.bsky.social) – *all* of the 'Other Minds' trilogy.
www.kqed.org/forum/201010...
www.kqed.org/forum/201010...
I saw the movie "DJ Ahmet" the other day (part of Sydney Film Festival).
An absolute delight.
Made by Georgi Unkovski. About a world combining TikTok and techno with arranged marriage [what a blight that practice is], and the call to prayer.
Highly recommended if you get the chance.
An absolute delight.
Made by Georgi Unkovski. About a world combining TikTok and techno with arranged marriage [what a blight that practice is], and the call to prayer.
Highly recommended if you get the chance.
June 15, 2025 at 11:38 PM
I saw the movie "DJ Ahmet" the other day (part of Sydney Film Festival).
An absolute delight.
Made by Georgi Unkovski. About a world combining TikTok and techno with arranged marriage [what a blight that practice is], and the call to prayer.
Highly recommended if you get the chance.
An absolute delight.
Made by Georgi Unkovski. About a world combining TikTok and techno with arranged marriage [what a blight that practice is], and the call to prayer.
Highly recommended if you get the chance.
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
🧵 I see my book Becoming Earth as one part of a larger emerging movement: a resurgence of holistic, planetary-scale thinking; an evolving Gaia as a modern coevolutionary framework for understanding Earth; and a renewed recognition of the animacy, agency, and rights of more-than-human living systems
June 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
🧵 I see my book Becoming Earth as one part of a larger emerging movement: a resurgence of holistic, planetary-scale thinking; an evolving Gaia as a modern coevolutionary framework for understanding Earth; and a renewed recognition of the animacy, agency, and rights of more-than-human living systems
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
📽️ The recording of the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture 2025 by @petergs.bsky.social on freedom and tolerance is now available online!
Watch it here: www.youtube.com/live/1TWy0xa...
Watch it here: www.youtube.com/live/1TWy0xa...
June 3, 2025 at 4:09 PM
📽️ The recording of the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture 2025 by @petergs.bsky.social on freedom and tolerance is now available online!
Watch it here: www.youtube.com/live/1TWy0xa...
Watch it here: www.youtube.com/live/1TWy0xa...
Later today (London) is my Karl Popper Memorial Lecture at the LSE. (Also zoomable.)
www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
Tolerance and freedom of expression
6.30pm Mon 2 June | Peter Godfrey-Smith | Registration Required | Free public event at LSE
www.lse.ac.uk
June 2, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Later today (London) is my Karl Popper Memorial Lecture at the LSE. (Also zoomable.)
www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
The @newyorker.com's "Book Currents" has a conversation with me about three cephalopod-centered novels, in different styles: Ray Naylor's "The Mountain in the Sea," @aptshadow.bsky.social's "Children of Ruin," and China Mieville's "Kraken." 1/
www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...
www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...
Peter Godfrey-Smith on Alien Intelligences in Our Midst
The philosopher discusses three novels about cephalopods’ mysterious forms of consciousness.
www.newyorker.com
May 30, 2025 at 11:41 AM
The @newyorker.com's "Book Currents" has a conversation with me about three cephalopod-centered novels, in different styles: Ray Naylor's "The Mountain in the Sea," @aptshadow.bsky.social's "Children of Ruin," and China Mieville's "Kraken." 1/
www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...
www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...
This event (London and hybrid, Wednesday) now has a suitable image.
(Nudibranchs of the Armina genus, waltzing.)
Good topic, very good line-up.
www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...
(Nudibranchs of the Armina genus, waltzing.)
Good topic, very good line-up.
www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...
Grades of Mind: Agency, Memory, Sentience
“In attempting to understand the elements out of which mental phenomena are compounded, it is of the greatest importance to remember that from the protozoa to man there is nowhere a very wide…
www.lse.ac.uk
May 26, 2025 at 12:06 AM
This event (London and hybrid, Wednesday) now has a suitable image.
(Nudibranchs of the Armina genus, waltzing.)
Good topic, very good line-up.
www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...
(Nudibranchs of the Armina genus, waltzing.)
Good topic, very good line-up.
www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...
I saw the new David Attenborough film "Ocean" yesterday. Very good, as always.
A major point of agreement: the emphasis on marine reserves. Even small reserves can have dramatic effects..🧵 1/
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...
A major point of agreement: the emphasis on marine reserves. Even small reserves can have dramatic effects..🧵 1/
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...
Ocean with David Attenborough review – a passionate case against the ruination of the seas
Released on his 99th birthday and presented in the context of his remarkable career, Sir David’s authority is matched only by nature’s grandeur in this visually stunning film
www.theguardian.com
May 23, 2025 at 8:14 AM
I saw the new David Attenborough film "Ocean" yesterday. Very good, as always.
A major point of agreement: the emphasis on marine reserves. Even small reserves can have dramatic effects..🧵 1/
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...
A major point of agreement: the emphasis on marine reserves. Even small reserves can have dramatic effects..🧵 1/
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Join us for the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture 2025!
Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social will talk about tolerance and the freedom of expression.
📅 2 June 2025 - 6:30pm (London time)
Hybrid and open to all!
More about the event and link to the live stream: www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social will talk about tolerance and the freedom of expression.
📅 2 June 2025 - 6:30pm (London time)
Hybrid and open to all!
More about the event and link to the live stream: www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
Tolerance and freedom of expression
6.30pm Mon 2 June | Peter Godfrey-Smith | Registration Required | Free public event at LSE
www.lse.ac.uk
May 13, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Join us for the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture 2025!
Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social will talk about tolerance and the freedom of expression.
📅 2 June 2025 - 6:30pm (London time)
Hybrid and open to all!
More about the event and link to the live stream: www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
Peter Godfrey-Smith @petergs.bsky.social will talk about tolerance and the freedom of expression.
📅 2 June 2025 - 6:30pm (London time)
Hybrid and open to all!
More about the event and link to the live stream: www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...
In ch.7 of "Living on Earth," I single out US beagle experiments (toxicology especially) as among the worst forms of abuse of animals in science. Some discussion in the main text, more in the notes (see below). I didn't realize then that the NIH itself had a beagle lab on its main campus.. 🧵 1/
May 10, 2025 at 3:26 AM
In ch.7 of "Living on Earth," I single out US beagle experiments (toxicology especially) as among the worst forms of abuse of animals in science. Some discussion in the main text, more in the notes (see below). I didn't realize then that the NIH itself had a beagle lab on its main campus.. 🧵 1/
Reposted by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Please join me, @petergs.bsky.social, @jeffsebo.bsky.social, @aliboyle.bsky.social, Marta Halina, Nick Shea and Matt Sims online or in London, 28 May, for Grades of Mind: Agency, Memory, Sentience - a workshop so interesting it doesn't need a relevant image. www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...
Grades of Mind: Agency, Memory, Sentience
“In attempting to understand the elements out of which mental phenomena are compounded, it is of the greatest importance to remember that from the protozoa to man there is nowhere a very wide…
www.lse.ac.uk
May 8, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Please join me, @petergs.bsky.social, @jeffsebo.bsky.social, @aliboyle.bsky.social, Marta Halina, Nick Shea and Matt Sims online or in London, 28 May, for Grades of Mind: Agency, Memory, Sentience - a workshop so interesting it doesn't need a relevant image. www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/e...
A photo from my Royce Lectures at Brown (taken by Alison Simmons) that has the outline of all three lectures in the background.
Life & Mind; Evolution & Goals; Biology & Idealism.
Life & Mind; Evolution & Goals; Biology & Idealism.
May 7, 2025 at 5:58 AM
A photo from my Royce Lectures at Brown (taken by Alison Simmons) that has the outline of all three lectures in the background.
Life & Mind; Evolution & Goals; Biology & Idealism.
Life & Mind; Evolution & Goals; Biology & Idealism.
One of the outcomes of the Australian federal election.
Much credit to @animalsaustralia.org.
They worked hard for this.
Much credit to @animalsaustralia.org.
They worked hard for this.
May 6, 2025 at 2:55 AM
One of the outcomes of the Australian federal election.
Much credit to @animalsaustralia.org.
They worked hard for this.
Much credit to @animalsaustralia.org.
They worked hard for this.