This is great. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/c... (free link) "Notably, half of the whales attending were not related to the mother." "The calf was rarely left untouched, and it was usually being touched by at least two whales simultaneously."

Next month at @columbiauniversity.bsky.social in NYC, a mind-body talk for the 2026 Nagel Lecture. Philosophy Department. Link below. I'll look at the debate taking shape between "biological naturalism" and "computational functionalism" (labels that are imperfect but not bad).. 1/

On our Close Readings subscription podcast: @meehancrist.bsky.social and @petergs.bsky.social reflect on how Helen Czerski’s 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 has altered their thinking about the ocean, and whether new perspectives can change public policy. Listen to an extract: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...

Third in a series of short photographic blog posts about octopuses encountered a few weeks ago diving at Fly Point (Australia): metazoan.net/130-another-...

Much gratitude to @debolinunferth.bsky.social for including 'Other Minds' in her nine 'reset' books. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Baz Luhrmann has the right idea. I'm not much of an Elvis person, but looking forward to seeing this. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/m... (gift link)

Episode 2 of "Nature in Crisis," the podcast I'm doing with @meehancrist.bsky.social for the @lrb.co.uk is now up. We discuss "The Light Eaters" by @zoeschlanger.bsky.social. Plant intelligence, plant agency, the pace and place of plants. www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

Photo from my car window on the way to record episode 1 of the podcast series I'm doing with @meehancrist.bsky.social for the @lrb.co.uk (links below). Mill Valley, California. Highway 1 flooded (November). The series is called "Nature in Crisis." 1/

A very fine octopus encountered at Fly Point (Australia) today. Like an old battleship.

Near the end of my time teaching at US universities I began to wonder if small liberal arts colleges were better set up for the future than the large ones I was accustomed to – this before LLMs, Trump2, & other current crises. Now this looks much more likely. 🧵 1/ www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

After reading his previous books (especially Other Minds) I was really looking forward to @petergs.bsky.social new one, and it does not disappoint. A great journey through the evolution of life & cognition and how they have shaped our biosphere. Must-read @brigan.bsky.social @jordiplam.bsky.social

49 degrees Celsius (= 120 F) down in Victoria? Tomorrow evening @meehancrist.bsky.social and I record episode 3 of "Nature in Crisis," a new podcast series with the @lrb.co.uk. Episode 1 looked at Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," and is available now (link in reply).

A passage below in a (good) book I am reading. I recommend against make the bet - your dollar may well be lost. One can photograph reds and oranges underwater without added light; just have to tell the camera to scour its input for the tiny amounts of red coming in, and ramp them up in the mix. 1/

A new podcast series through the London Review of Books (@lrb.co.uk): "Nature in Crisis." Close readings of books about nature, conservation, climate, & energy. Once a month, with myself & Meehan Crist. Episode 1, out now, is about Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

Searching through old octopus files for something, I came across a video from 12 years ago. One of our first videos of possible projectile use by an octopus. The other octo is definitely hit, but the aim was not great. I put onto YT a better version of the video. 1/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87a...

A blog post. About cockatoos, grooming, and affection. metazoan.net/127-affection/

A review of the second edition of 'Theory and Reality,' in Spanish, by Macario Ofilada Mina. I don't read Spanish, and used a translate site. Mina suggests that both Polanyi and Whitehead might have been included.. www.religiondigital.org/libros/segur... 1/

Each year round this time, Rainbow Lorikeets come in and make a huge fuss round some high tree hollows (where some Galahs raised a family in 'Living On Earth'). They make a stack of noise, rip things up, check it all out... and then leave again.

A favorite encounter of 2025 – bobcat, Point Reyes (California). Bobcat not lioness, but the image brings to mind the Iranian protestors right now.

Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).

Free speech thread: In the aftermath of the Bondi murders, the state govt here is moving, unfortunately, in the direction of suppressing protest and proscribing specific phrases. I gave talks in 2025 about tolerance & free speech. Wrote up the main one: petergodfreysmith.com/wp-content/u...

In relation to the blog post about lights and camera gear: this is from a recent dive trip. Mine is the diminutive rig at the end (red arrow). (Blog post: Metazoan.net)

A blog post obsessing about Phyllodesmium poindimiei, the nudibranch in the previous post. Obsessing also about some photographic ethics – suddenly adding light to the world of these tiny creatures. Is it aversive? How could we tell? A scrap of data is included.. metazoan.net/126-spun-of-...

Back in the water with Phyllodesmium poindimiei. A gastropodic marvel. (Fly Point, Australia)

A Great Horned Owl, seen in Point Reyes during my recent California trip. Spotted (while quite a bit better hidden than he is here) by Daniel Dietrich. A young one, apparently. Flew off and then sat watching as I scrambled up the hill to get a photo.

A review of 'Living On Earth' by @gvallortigara.bsky.social.

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

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...

Australian whale populations – what a pleasure to read this.

Weather coming in over Eagle Lake, (California, near Tahoe), last week.

"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...

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/

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...

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/

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...

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.

Summer reading from the radio station KQED (@kqedarts.bsky.social) – *all* of the 'Other Minds' trilogy. 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.

🧵 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

📽️ 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...

Later today (London) is my Karl Popper Memorial Lecture at the LSE. (Also zoomable.) 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...

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...

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...

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/...

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/

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.