Search Results for: Peter Godfrey-Smith
Book Review

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Other Minds

I go through animal obsessions in stages and currently I’m (PLATONICALLY) interested in cephalopods. I’ve read a few books that involve cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, octopuses, nautilus) and I’ve seen some weird shit, you guys. They are especially popular in the steampunk genre and in Lovecraftian horror. For example, fictional items which feature cephalopods that we’ve reviewed here include: The Farthest Shore by Marian Perera Fantasy in which a young woman has a mind meld with … Continue reading Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Whatcha Reading? October 2021, Part Two

The woman in yellow coat jeans and boots sitting under the maple tree with a red book and cup of coffee or tea in fall city park on a warm day. Autumn golden leaves. Reading concept. Close up.

We’re getting to close out October and that means it’s time for our second Whatcha Reading of the month! It’s tattoo day for me and I’m bringing a book. Will I be able to concentrate? We’re going to find out. Now let’s talk about what we’ve been reading! Carrie: My current bathroom book is Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith . I also just finished Volume One of Something is Killing the Children which was WHOOOAAAA overwhelming … Continue reading Whatcha Reading? October 2021, Part Two

SBTB Media Archive

Metazoa

Metazoa

The scuba-diving philosopher who wrote Other Minds explores the origins of animal consciousness Dip below the ocean’s surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals, and serpulid worms, whose rooted bodies, intricate geometry, and flower-like appendages are more reminiscent of plant life or even architecture than anything recognizably animal. Yet these creatures are our cousins. As fellow members of the animal kingdom—the … Continue reading Metazoa

SBTB Media Archive

Metazoa

Metazoa

The scuba-diving philosopher who wrote Other Minds explores the origins of animal consciousness Dip below the ocean’s surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals, and serpulid worms, whose rooted bodies, intricate geometry, and flower-like appendages are more reminiscent of plant life or even architecture than anything recognizably animal. Yet these creatures are our cousins. As fellow members of the animal kingdom—the … Continue reading Metazoa

A Short Tour of a Japanese Bookstore

Mango instruction page teaching me how to say Is there a bookstore around here? in Japanese

This is going to be a terribly indulgent post. At the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, I was in Japan with my family. This trip was in part to celebrate my older son’s bar mitzvah and to satisfy our collective enjoyment of really long flights. (As I write this, the 14 hour jet lag is still kicking my ass.) We spent time in Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka, and Tokyo, and loved every minute. … Continue reading A Short Tour of a Japanese Bookstore

SBTB Media Archive

Other Minds

Other Minds

Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring … Continue reading Other Minds