Much gratitude to @debolinunferth.bsky.social for including 'Other Minds' in her nine 'reset' books.
www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
Much gratitude to @debolinunferth.bsky.social for including 'Other Minds' in her nine 'reset' books.
www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
As @meehancrist.bsky.social says, the book is full of mind-bending material and we much enjoyed discussing it.
Do you know if there is any news on the mimic vine? Are you still in touch with those researchers? Do you know the latest?
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...
This was at Nelson Bay, up the coast from Sydney. It doesn't have unusual concentrations in the way Octopolis (etc) does, but it tends to have a good number of octopuses.
I did a blog post about this one - metazoan.net/128-battlesh...
I'd raised the possibility of having a question-mark in the title – "Nature in Crisis?" – as the aim is to discuss that theme without prior assumptions. But driving through a flood on the way to ep 1 certainly made the title seem apt.
Ep 2 is released this week. 2/
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/
Thank you very much.
10.02.2026 03:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A very fine octopus encountered at Fly Point (Australia) today. Like an old battleship.
04.02.2026 10:25 — 👍 26 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 2
Scope for administrative overreach is scale-dependent?
The problem of AI seems somewhat less acute at these places, too.
Many well-known small US colleges are very expensive, but the model might be applied more broadly?
Australia does not have these institutions. I wish it did. 4/4
.. These features are helpful in many contexts right now. Because these are small communities, interference and power-grabs by administrators also seem less of a problem – or they were when I began reflecting on all this. I hope it's still true. 3/
02.02.2026 02:32 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
As @ibogost.com says, the small colleges might be "accidental winners," not just of the overt conflicts but in relation to other crises, including AI.
Small-group interaction, norms of civility and community, the step back from ultra-competitive practices.. 2/
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...
Thank you very much, Ricard.
01.02.2026 04:06 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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
31.01.2026 12:44 — 👍 29 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
Link to episode 1 of "Nature in Crisis," with a sample.
www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
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).
It's not AI or additive; just a matter telling the camera what to look for and what to dial back.
I am a 'natural light ideologue' - see this blog post.
metazoan.net/126-spun-of-...
(Below is also an image from another blog post – how an adjustment for 12 meters or so looks at the surface.)
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...
But now I don't think that the shell movement was incidental. The 'pause' before the release makes it unlikely. We saw that pause often with very clear gatherings-and-throws in our later data.
Here's an excerpt of the video, just with the 'throw.' 3/
At the time, I worried that this might have been a case where one octopus blew a water jet at another and happened to project some shells as well.
I discussed the case way back, on my blog.
metazoan.net/10-a-new-oct...
(This case is not used in our 2022 paper on the topic.) 2/
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/
... the tension between tenacity & innovation in science, and the relation between individual & group-level properties. Not Polanyian themes so much.
Thanks to Macario Mina for a nice review of TR2, which he calls "a guide for navigating stormy seas." 3/3
Others have also suggested Polanyi, thinking that Kuhn gets more credit than he should – and should have cited P in 'Structure.' Tsung-Yun Tzeng wrote to me in detail about this, & sent work by Struan Jacobs. I did have a look. To me, the most valuable Kuhnian ideas concern... 2/
19.01.2026 05:38 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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.
16.01.2026 04:44 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A favorite encounter of 2025 – bobcat, Point Reyes (California).
Bobcat not lioness, but the image brings to mind the Iranian protestors right now.
An email from Martin Peterson to university administrators.
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
08.01.2026 17:38 — 👍 5153 🔁 1546 💬 61 📌 142