Metazoa

Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind

By: Peter Godfrey-Smith

Narrated by: Mitch Riley, Peter Godfrey-Smith

This program is read by Peter Godfrey-Smith with Mitch Riley.

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 Metazoa— they can teach us much about the evolutionary origins of not only our bodies, but also our minds.

In his acclaimed 2016 book, Other Minds, the philosopher and scuba diver Peter Godfrey-Smith explored the mind of the octopus — the closest thing to an intelligent alien on Earth. In Metazoa, Godfrey-Smith expands his inquiry to animals at large, investigating the evolution of subjective experience with the assistance of far-flung species. As he delves into what it feels like to perceive and interact with the world as other life-forms do, Godfrey-Smith shows that the appearance of the animal body well over half a billion years ago was a profound innovation that set life upon a new path. In accessible, riveting prose, he charts the ways that subsequent evolutionary developments — eyes that track, for example, and bodies that move through and manipulate the environment — shaped the subjective lives of animals. Following the evolutionary paths of a glass sponge, soft coral, banded shrimp, octopus, and fish, then moving onto land and the world of insects, birds, and primates like ourselves, Metazoa gathers their stories together in a way that bridges the gap between mind and matter, addressing one of the most vexing philosophical problems: that of consciousness.

Combining vivid animal encounters with philosophical reflections and the latest news from biology, Metazoa reveals that even in our high-tech, AI-driven times, there is no understanding our minds without understanding nerves, muscles, and active bodies. The story that results is as rich and vibrant as life itself.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2020 Peter Godfrey-Smith (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

VERY IMPRESSIVE

I listened to it as Smith's follow up book. I wanted more of the Marine Biology. So much of this went right over my head.
I need to start with some beginner's books. I did enjoy the parts I could stretch my shriveled old brain around.
i LOVE THE LEAFY SEADRAGON ON THE COVER. That's reason enough to buy the book.

well written, easy to listen to

peters voice is pleasant, i feel that anyone reading his works would be inadequate. i do appreciate the work being done by this man, and consideration should be given to animal with a gradient or levels of consciousness. however towards the end peter makes a couple assertions in that robots/ ai cannot be made conscious by replicating the patterns of human mind. it is asserted that there's something still missing from them which cannot be simulated, i feel this assertion is unfounded and had no supporting argument, which later on he acknowledges robots may one day become conscious(making that whole segmentkind of useless as it supported nothing else). besides that end piece, this is a great read for anyone interested in ethics and animal rights.

A primer on the evolution of consciousness

An enlightening story of Earth's life and how it came to be self aware.

outstanding

Best book I have read or listened to this year. Although I have been reading related information for decades, this book brought me new facts and a new perspective. I am still processing what that new perspective means for how I view the world and what my moral obligations are to other forms of life.

Detailed review with important concepts

This book starts slow and moves slow in the beginning but the concepts are developed and the thesis of thought is important to consider and be exposed to.