Peter Godfrey-Smith @pgodfreysmith Twitter profile

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@AP_McCoy

Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

@vandroidhelsing That Wikipedia article has some exaggerations! I'd better go in and do an edit. We wrote an article a few years back about the distinction between deliberate and inadvertent 'engineering' at the site - See the end of the Abstract below... 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

"Finding Consciousness in Phylogenetically Distant Organisms" – a thread with a few slides and references from my talk at @ASSC26nyc this afternoon. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

Last month I gave the Whitehead Lectures at Harvard. These are two public lectures organized by the Philosophy Department. The title of the series was "Limits of Sentience, Boundaries of Consideration." The texts of both lectures are now here: 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

This is remarkable.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Eighteen years on, a 2nd edition of 'Theory and Reality' is out. Expanded as well as updated, but preserving the original structure. Again with @UChicagoPress . Pool and thumb are not mine; thanks to @mattasher (of 'The Filter' podcast) for sending this pic of an early copy.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

7 months

@greg_price11 That really does seem to be the chant - "gas the jews". At the Sydney opera house. Would never have believed this could happen.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

8 days

Thinking about Dan Dennett, who died yesterday after a stupendous career & very rich life. What might be his best ever paper? A candidate: "Three Kinds of Intentional Psychology." A legit scan via Tufts is here: 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Dick Lewontin, who died a few days ago, was a huge inspiration to me. On the philosophical side, my favorite papers of his are this one below (1983) and the more famous "Analysis of Variance and Analysis of Cause" paper, from 1974. Wonderful work.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

This paper by @KevinBardosh and 8 co-authors came out during my May travels: a very good critical discussion of the various measures of compulsion and exclusion that have been part of Covid vaccine policy. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

... the release of METAZOA. A sequel to my 2016 book OTHER MINDS. Out today in the UK, next week in Australia, and the week after in the USA. Below is the beautifully produced UK hardback from @WmCollinsBooks . ( #metazoa )

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

Elegant simplicity in this cover for the Spanish edition of 'Philosophy of Biology' by @bauplanbooks_ed .

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

An excellent new paper about (& against) college Covid vaccine booster mandates from @KevinBardosh & co-authors. Mandates were never a good policy, now a relic, but still in force in many institutions. Screenshot from the Abstract summarizes the themes: 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

A thread with a few slides and references from "Inferring Conscious Experience in Octopuses and Others," a talk given at a (remarkably good) conference at @NIH organized by @BiyuHe . The talk was going to discuss a number of animals, but it ended up rather octo-centric. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

7 months

Regarding the massacre at the Israeli rave: Twitter/X was fast, the mainstream media slow, but now it's clear what happened, and it was an unspeakable atrocity, no matter what one thinks about the Palestinian cause. This is not "fighting back." 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

We're not living inside a computer simulation. In April I gave a talk at a conference session about @davidchalmers42 's book "Reality+". I'm starting to add references, extra notes, etc., to the text. Comments welcome.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

I was outside a few hours ago and a sudden rainstorm came. As it did, this bird (a galah) immediately turned upside down and stretched out its wings – in enjoyment, or to wash as thoroughly as possible?

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

Two threads on recent papers (one a preprint, one in @Nature ) about octopus sleep and dreams. The Nature one (1st au. Aditi Pophale, w. @SamAlbertReiter , @CephWarden ) firms up the idea that octos alternate between quiet and "active" sleep, akin to REM sleep in us. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

7 months

The @NYU online talk I gave last night argued that consciousness won't exist in an artificial system unless it has a new kind of hardware that makes it more brain-like. At the end, I said that all this is an invitation to think about designing .. 1/

Events

Spring 2024

sites.google.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

First time in the water for quite a while. Giant Cuttlefish, today at Cabbage Tree Bay (NSW, Australia). Showing what a fully-protected marine reserve (and a bit of evolution) can do.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

Time to start writing the Nicod Lectures.

Institut Jean Nicod

@InstitutNicod

2 years

JEAN NICOD PRIZE🏅ǀ Prof. @pgodfreysmith ( @Sydney_Uni ), one of the main world experts in philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind, will be in Paris this June to receive the #PrixJeanNicod 2022. The programme of the lectures given on the occasion➡️ 1/3

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

@AlbertBourla If the people getting the shots are 5-11, I am not sure they count as volunteers.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

The US edition of #Metazoa is now out. With a cover design by @Rodrigo_Corral , featuring an image by #RogerSwainston . Many thanks to both, and to @fsgbooks .

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

'The Mind of a Bee,' by @LChittka , is one of the next books I will be grappling with, especially in prep for my October 13 lecture at the @statelibrarynsw . Our picture of insect cognition and experience has changed a lot recently, in large part via work in Lars's lab. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Starting Monday: A @BBCRadio4 serialization of 'Other Minds,' read by Tim McInnerny.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

After being written and revised in stages online over the last 12 months, my "Three Layers" article about Covid policy has been published by Monash Bioethics Review. No paywall. Thanks to many for comments, emails, etc.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

'My Octopus Teacher' (Netflix) is great. It has some truly stunning footage.

Watch My Octopus Teacher | Netflix Official Site

A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.

www.netflix.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

A reflection on Christine Korsgaard's book 'Fellow Creatures,' and from there, a broader look at our relationships with nonhuman animals.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

Upcoming, in a couple of weeks: 2023 Whitehead Lectures at Harvard. Won't be streamed, but there will eventually be a video archive.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

The UK and US covers of #Metazoa feature dueling sea dragons. The origins of both images are described here:

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 months

Stylish arm positions on this octopus. (Nelson Bay diving again.)

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 months

This cover for the Japanese edition of 'Metazoa' is stunning. Thank you, @misuzu_shobo .

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

@vandroidhelsing .. Thanks for posting all those links about the site. 2/

Jared Pechaček

@vandroidhelsing

11 months

anyway here are some links, go wild

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

'Metazoa' is out in paperback in the US, UK, & Australia.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 months

Yesterday's octopus (also Nelson Bay), from a different vantage point.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

@AlinejadMasih Truly remarkable courage.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

7 months

Upcoming next week - . Longer outline: First thing I want to do is reject arguments for the "substrate neutrality" of the mental; then look at options for biological properties that might matter to consciousness, including sketches by @de_dicto , &.. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

I agree with this point by @NahasNewman entirely. The 'filtering' of factual statements with an eye to downstream political uses leads to the erosion of science's credibility and is often likely to be self-defeating in any case.

Newman Nahas

@NahasNewman

3 years

Science is supposed to ask what’s true—not what’s likely to become a talking point for the “wrong” side. Not only is the latter an incoherent criterion that strips science of its epistemic prestige—it’s also unworkable. Who knows what your political opponents will run with?

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

5 months

This is a written-up version of a talk I gave online to the Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program at NYU, in October. It's more a talk text than a paper. Topics as the title suggests. Comments are welcome.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

6 months

The "moving rock" - a notable octopus behavior. (Not rare, just interesting. And a good way to get from A to B.) This blog post describes the case below and has some videos: At the Octlantis site (Booderee National Park, Australia) earlier this year.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

Just in case we thought they didn't have any more tricks up their sleeve(s): Octopuses edit the RNA produced in their brains in response to temperature. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

8 months

A conversation about octopuses, other animals, brains, and consciousness with @seanmcarroll .

Sean Carroll

@seanmcarroll

8 months

Mindscape 249 | Peter Godfrey-Smith on Sentience and Octopus Minds. What can we learn from intelligent creatures that aren't even vertebrates? #MindscapePodcast

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

Our article about debris-throwing by wild octopuses is now out, in PLOS ONE. Close to the preprint from 2021, though shorter. This version also includes, as SI, videos that show the behavior. One is the basis for this GIF. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

5 months

Seyla Benhabib wrote a reply to a "Philosophy for Palestine" letter that is circulating. It's very good. One thing she emphasizes is the need for the pro-Palestine side to get entirely clear of Hamas.. 1/

An Open Letter To My Friends Who Signed “Philosophy for Palestine”

Seyla Benhabib

medium.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

@vandroidhelsing .. On its best days, I agree that visiting is a bit like seeing the start of a new Adrian Tchaikovsky novel ( @aptshadow ). Below, a frame from a video with 3 octopuses wrestling. I gave a talk about them yesterday, as it happens, at Bloom Festival in Copenhagen ( #Bloomdk ). 3/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Cephalopod and crustacean sentience: the lords are on board.

Octopuses and lobsters have feelings – include them in sentience bill, urge MPs

Group argues some invertebrates are extremely intelligent and should be protected from suffering

www.theguardian.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

Currently working through this lucid review of sleep & (perhaps..) dream phenomena across species and phyla, written in part by my octopus collaborator David Scheel. A theme: 'dream-enacting behavior' as a source of evidence, with cephalopods highlighted.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

Charles the octopus is a good role model.

Melissa

@misssssy44

10 months

D's current non-fiction is 'Other Minds The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life' by Peter Godfrey-Smith. Recommended to him by a friend. He's really enjoying it. He's telling me all about Charles the octopus' mischievous antics.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

Good timing by Steve Downes.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

A good article about – & against – octopus farming by @philosophybites (with some irony in his twitter handle..). Octopuses are completely unsuitable for farming, & recent information about the farm in development by Nueva Pescanova makes this clear. 1/

Everyday Philosophy: The ethics of octopus farming

Critics argue that it is impossible, or at least impractical, to rear octopuses for food without causing them intense suffering

www.theneweuropean.co.uk

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

It's giant cuttlefish mating season in Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, Australia. A big male, levitating.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Just arrived: a collection of papers about Michael Devitt, my old honors advisor (1987), CUNY colleague, and friend of nearly 40 years.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

I don't usually retweet praise of the books, but I greatly appreciate these words by @dschwa8059 (biographer of Enrico Fermi).

David N. Schwartz

@dschwa8059

3 years

Just finished @pgodfreysmith 's Metazoa, and can honestly say that I will never look at a rat, or a bee, or a crab, or an octopus, the same way again. One of the most profound reads ever.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

In November I gave a talk at Columbia U. in a workshop in honor of Philip Kitcher (my PhD advisor, from way back). I chose to look at his climate book with EF Keller ('The Seasons Alter'), but the talk was mostly about trust and power within science. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

This is a pretty amazing product. Best plant-based meat I've tried, by a mile.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

The UK paperback edition of METAZOA is out. The new cover has an extra creature from the sketchbook of convict artist William Buelow Gould. Insides are the same except for one addition and one correction (to be described later). For more about Gould:

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

Amid a lot of bad things going on right now, a whale-sized scrap of good news.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

Some good things we might do in the new year – not as "goals," but starting right now: 1. Stop making little kids wear masks. 2. Return to normal at schools and universities. 3. Let people make their own decisions about the vaccines. [1/]

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Editors' choice.

9 New Books We Recommend This Week (Published 2020)

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

www.nytimes.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

Here's a question:

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

This defense of free expression on Substack's own blog is very well put – the highlighted part.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

7 months

A short thread about the "IIT as pseudoscience" discussion, initiated by @hakwanlau and others. I agree that the empirical credentials and testability of IIT have often been exaggerated. A blog post about this from 2015 - 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

I am getting ready for my second Jean Nicod lecture. A couple of slides are combined into a collage here, to give the themes of lecture 1 (and, top right, an outline of the whole series). Always a great intellectual atmosphere at the @InstitutNicod .

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

The @nytimes article about our new octopus behavior paper (jet-propelled debris throwing) is especially good, both because @MegaDarren went through the paper & the issues so well, and the Times also embedded three of the crucial videos. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

Feeling a little squashed here...

Jo Thomson

@joey_thoms

1 year

All 3 series of the Collins Modern Classics!

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

A link to the text of my commentary yesterday at #APAPacific23 on @davidchalmers42 's book "Reality+". I'll post a version with references and notes later on. Thanks to @eschwitz for setting the symposium up.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

An old bit of fishing gear caught my eye on a scuba dive yesterday, and I went over to get it. Arriving, I found that a tiny octopus was using it to decorate his or her house. Or perhaps had set the house up next to it, but I suspect the former. Wonderful animals.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

9 months

Well-decorated spines of various 'Metazoa.’ Top: A medusa intrudes from the front of Todavia’s Portuguese edition, Middle: The Korean edition (Leekim) includes a Haeckel sea star larva, Bottom: The Polish edition (Copernicus) adds a tiny Aeolid nudibranch.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

@BallouxFrancois A particular problem emerging: in the face of uncertainty about the risk/benefit balance of vaccines to kids themselves, benefit to others is being used as a kind of tie-breaker. I reject this move.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

"Although they are usually quite solitary creatures, here we see a rare aggregation of octopus books. Why have they gathered in this way? No one knows." (Featuring David Scheel's new 'Many Things Under a Rock.' Spotted in Homer, Alaska.)

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 months

Hoping this might start a trend..

Jennifer Jacquet

@jenniferjacquet

2 months

Just watched the Washington state senate vote in favor of HB 1153 — a preemptive ban on octopus farming. Historic moment.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

Good cephalopod news. Federal protection of the Whyalla Giant Cuttlefish.

SA's cuttlefish sanctuary added to National Heritage List to help protect 'underwater lightshow'

The site for Australia's largest breeding migration of giant Australian cuttlefish is now on the National Heritage List.

www.abc.net.au

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

We have a new pre-print up about octopus behavior. Octopuses throw debris, sometimes hitting others; do they intend to? The paper has not been peer reviewed. Work with David Scheel, Stephanie Chancellor, Stefan Linquist, & Matt Lawrence. [1/3]

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

Gáspár Jékely ( @JekelyLab ) unveils a hypothesis about nervous system origins: "the chemical brain."

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 months

I heard from Steven Fesmire that the Oxford Handbook of Dewey that he edited is now out in paperback - still not cheap, but not too bad. Very good author list, with @MisakCheryl and many others. Nice Matisse cover. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 months

Self-grooming in bumblebees of an area touched with a heated probe – a preprint from @matilda_gibbons & collabs in the @chittka lab ( @evaroseread , @AndrewCrump94 ). In "Metazoa," I cited a 1984 paper (Eisemann et al.) that claimed that insects... 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

In an excellent @WSJ column, @AlisonGopnik threads her longstanding interest in the exploratory role of childhood into the tangled arms of the octopus.

The Many Minds of the Octopus

The weird way that the brainpower of octos is distributed among their eight arms may have much to teach us about our own brains.

www.wsj.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

A thread on the "octopus nightmare?" paper. This one is a preprint: . Ramos et al. report on 4 episodes in which an octo went from a sleep-like state into dramatic, out-of-context behaviors that are suggestive of "dream-enactment." Video frame below.. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

Metazoa in Brazil. A debate/conversation, rather than a series of talks. Nov 25, 8 pm Brasilia time.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

This is good news indeed and a real step forward. Kudos to @birchlse , @nickyclayton22 , @Dr_AlexSchnell and collaborators for making it happen.

LSE

@LSEnews

2 years

Wonderful Friday news! Octopuses🐙, crabs🦀, lobsters🦞, and other cephalopods and decapods, are set to receive greater protection under UK law following #LSE report by @birchlse and colleagues showing they are capable of feeling pain and distress.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

"What good is philosophy?" I am looking forward to being part of this. Still a few weeks away. It's a benefit for Ukraine. I have a lot to say...

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

This is a good preprint about – and against – vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, and the like, looking at their network of consequences from the viewpoints of several disciples (public health, anthro., cog sci., politics...) 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

8 months

Back from 10 days on a dive boat in the Solomon Islands. Wonderful caves and other incursions by the sea into the islands. Also an hour or so with this cuttlefish and his egg-laying companion (Sepia latimanus). I highly recommend the boat - the #Bilikiki .

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

"Freedom, Interrupted" – a good title for this piece by @Melbchief about Covid policy and everyday liberties. Featuring thoughts from @PeterSinger , @timsout , @ID_ethics , @juliakretz , & myself, along with some moving personal stories.

Freedom, interrupted: Will the liberties we lost to COVID be regained?

Our pandemic response has involved restriction of liberties on a scale never previously imagined. Who has properly considered, much less tried to tally, the cost?

www.smh.com.au

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

7 months

.. But the term "pseudoscience" is too combative, too suggestive of a bad-faith background. I see IIT as a speculative picture, groping towards contact with the empirical. Not an uncommon path. Recent advertisements of its empirical support have had a lot of problems, though. 3/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

A rather murky day back under water. But welcomed by some old friends.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

Saved this tweet ages ago and I keep coming back to it. (Via @Clnwlsh and @KathaPollitt .)

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

Here we have: a blue-knee sea spider [tiny, harmless] being ridden, as if a horse, by a tube-building amphipod. Seconds later, the sea spider evicted the amphipod, rodeo-style. For the full sequence: (Fly Point, Australia)

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

The Australian government wants to greatly increase the cost of humanities degrees. A good time to consider what the humanities have actually achieved in Australia.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

I wrote several papers that respond to Lewontin's "The Organism as the Subject and Object of Evolution" – 1983, something I seem to come back to every few years. This is the most recent: Preprint link also:

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

If you want a good experience in the editorial process (hard to find!), pitch something to @aeonmag . ... A follow-up, of sorts, to this one below will come out at the end of this week. A look at food.

Why Korsgaard’s Kantian argument about animals doesn’t work | Aeon Essays

Christine Korsgaard argues that we can extend a Kantian moral framework to include other animals. But her argument fails

aeon.co

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 months

A dramatic example of a left-right split display by an octopus today. It's a crop of a video screenshot (I was not close), so it's not very clear. But - the octo's left (our right) is facing towards another incoming octopus... 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

@aginnt Amateurs. Here in Australia, the helicopters went after you if you stopped to talk to other people.

Police go next level in covid fight

Footage of a police helicopter warning beachgoers in Sydney’s eastern suburbs about Covid-19 breaches has sparked a debate about cops being too lenient in certain areas amid the state’s current...

www.news.com.au

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

Great study, fantastic birds. 1/

Cockatoos Know How to Pick the Right Tools for the Job (Published 2023)

The job, in these experiments, was getting a cashew out of a puzzle box.

www.nytimes.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

2 years

World Octopus Day comes round again. Today is perhaps a much bigger day for dolphins, as it happens. But - here's an edited collection of excerpts from 'Other Minds,' published a few years back by @scientificamer .

The Mind of an Octopus

Eight smart limbs plus a big brain add up to a weird and wondrous kind of intelligence

www.scientificamerican.com

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

A repost of my recent article about food, for @aeonmag . (It was just reprinted with a not very apt headline by @guardian .) … Here also is a link to a longer essay, which includes a broader discussion of farming of several kinds.

If not vegan, then what? An investigation of three options | Aeon Essays

A vegan diet can be hard to adopt, even if you’re convinced it’s the right thing to do. What are the next-best options?

aeon.co

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

10 months

Very interesting behavior.

Buitengebieden

@buitengebieden

10 months

Twitter.. 😂

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

1 year

A very interesting paper paper about Ordovician fossils (about 462 MYA) found in Wales. . Lots of animal groups represented. And as the paper emphasizes, many of the organisms are *small*; the sponge center right is ~ 20 mm. A bustling tiny world. 1/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

11 months

One more frame from a video used at my #BLOOM festival talk a few weeks back, in Copenhagen. An octopus has brought home one of our GoPro cameras on a weighted tripod (quite heavy!), while another wrangles with (I think) her. At the ‘Octopolis’ site, Booderee National Park.

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

4 years

Does this inquisitive octopus have a look of anticipation? Expecting something...?

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Peter Godfrey-Smith

@pgodfreysmith

3 years

Another multi-ceph review. This one in Counterpunch.

Thinking Like an Octopus

If intelligence is related to the amount of neurons in a creature’s brains, some attention must be paid to how they are located in an octopus’s body. Most are not in its head but in its arms. Each...

www.counterpunch.org

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