Varieties of life, varieties of mind
September 8, 2023 8:16 AM   Subscribe

I've recently listened to An Immense World, Finding the Mother Tree, Entangled Life, and Other Minds. What I should I listen to next?

I'm interested in reading about natural systems, complexity, ecology, evolution, emergent systems, and the variety of forms mind and consciousness could take. I'm interested in work that questions the boundaries between what we call "organisms". I'd love a cross-disciplinary book about diversity, that looks at the costs and benefits in biological, social, and technological systems. I want books with a good scientific grounding. I like some informed speculation and philosophizing, but I don't want full-on woo.

The books must be available as audiobooks, preferably on Libby (that will depend on my library) but otherwise through Audible or Apple Books.

(Of the books I've listed, above, I was somewhat disappointed by An Immense World because it didn't even try to help me imagine what it would be like to create a world view with the variety of senses various animals have. It described the senses, but then just stopped. Keep going, please! I want to imagine what it feels like. The other books were better on this front.)
posted by Winnie the Proust to Science & Nature (8 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: You could also throw in history of science, philosophy of science, and cellular biology.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:17 AM on September 8, 2023


You might like Anil Seth's Being You (consciousness, but mostly human consciousness).
posted by praemunire at 8:29 AM on September 8, 2023


Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
posted by wicked_sassy at 8:47 AM on September 8, 2023 [3 favorites]


Maybe try Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown? From her website, it is "a guidebook for getting in right relationship with change, using our own nature and that of creatures beyond human as our teachers."
posted by hessie at 11:49 AM on September 8, 2023


On Looking will be a book you love to listen to. Narrated by the author about walks with such experts as tree biologist, someone who understands the history of signage, her dog, her toddler, a blind person... It really is extraordinary.
posted by mearls at 1:29 PM on September 8, 2023


Salt by Mark Kurlansky.
posted by nkknkk at 2:17 PM on September 8, 2023


It's older and more nature writing than the more popular science titles you've listed, but I'm reading Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez and it's definitely hitting the points you're asking about interconnected natural systems, plus bonus history and anthropology. Former National Book Award winner, available on Libby.
posted by theweasel at 6:05 PM on September 8, 2023 [3 favorites]


I'm currently reading The Case Against Reality: How evolution hid the truth from our eyes, by Donald Hoffman. So far it's been interesting and seems to fit the kind of thing you are looking for. Sort of an alternative hypothesis to explain why the "hard problem of consciousness" continues to elude us.
posted by WhenInGnome at 6:35 PM on September 9, 2023


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