Ben Waber reviewed Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith
A Provocative Manifesto on a Cognition Gradient
5 stars
As with Godfrey-Smith's "Other Minds," this book provides a compelling journey through the development of cognition, but this time with a wider aperture. By tracing not just the development of cognition-related structures and processes, but indeed all components of life, Godfrey-Smith advances a compelling hypothesis around both the gradual emergence of cognition, but also for the inherently gradient-based nature of that phenomenon. Importantly, this should be read as a hypothesis - many of the conclusions put forward here are still theoretical and require additional follow up work. Godfrey-Smith does, however, wrap everything together in a convincing package, providing a frame of reference for considering new research in this broad area. Highly recommend
As with Godfrey-Smith's "Other Minds," this book provides a compelling journey through the development of cognition, but this time with a wider aperture. By tracing not just the development of cognition-related structures and processes, but indeed all components of life, Godfrey-Smith advances a compelling hypothesis around both the gradual emergence of cognition, but also for the inherently gradient-based nature of that phenomenon. Importantly, this should be read as a hypothesis - many of the conclusions put forward here are still theoretical and require additional follow up work. Godfrey-Smith does, however, wrap everything together in a convincing package, providing a frame of reference for considering new research in this broad area. Highly recommend
