Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Nonfiction
  3. Natural sciences

Read and listen for free for 42 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
4.3(47)

Other Minds : The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life

BBC R4 Book of the Week

‘Brilliant’ Guardian

‘Fascinating and often delightful’ The Times

What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?

In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself – a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared.

Tracking the mind’s fitful development from unruly clumps of seaborne cells to the first evolved nervous systems in ancient relatives of jellyfish, he explores the incredible evolutionary journey of the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous molluscs who would later abandon their shells to rise above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so – a journey completely independent from the route that mammals and birds would later take.

But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually ‘think for themselves’? By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind – and on our own.


Author:

  • Peter Godfrey-Smith

Narrator:

  • Peter Noble

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 6 h 44 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Nonfiction
  • Natural sciences

More by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Skip the list
  1. Metazoa : Die Geburt des Geistes aus dem Leben der Tiere

    Peter Godfrey-Smith

    book
  2. Metazoos : La evolución de la vida y el nacimiento de la consciencia

    Peter Godfrey-Smith

    book
  3. Djupsinne : hur bläckfisken började tänka

    Peter Godfrey-Smith

    audiobookbook
  4. Der Krake, das Meer und die tiefen Ursprünge des Bewusstseins

    Peter Godfrey-Smith

    book
  5. Theory and Reality

    Peter Godfrey-Smith

    audiobook

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. Bacteria

    Sebastian Amyes

    audiobook
  2. Hundar (lättläst)

    Helene Lumholdt

    audiobookbook
  3. The Patient Assassin : A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj

    Anita Anand

    audiobookbook
  4. Metazoa : Animal Minds and the Birth of Consciousness

    audiobook
  5. The Essentials of Theory U : Core Principles and Applications

    C. Otto Scharmer

    audiobook
  6. Leading from the Emerging Future : From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies

    Otto Scharmer, Katrin Kaeufer

    audiobook
  7. Practically Perfect : Life Lessons from Mary Poppins

    audiobook
  8. The Art of Not Breathing

    Sarah Alexander

    audiobook
  9. All the Single Ladies : Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation

    Rebecca Traister

    audiobook
  10. The Angel Makers : Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History’s Most Astonishing Murder Ring

    Patti McCracken

    audiobook
  11. Amazon FBA for Beginners Series : Start Your FBA Business, Find Profitable Physical Products and Make a Full-Time Income Selling on Amazon

    Red Mikhail

    audiobook
  12. The Serviceberry

    Robin Wall Kimmerer

    audiobook

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5