Tag: Jonathan Birch

Close-up of a colorful lobster in a coral reef.

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 3, 2025

Categorized
Animal mind, Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Law

Tagged
artificial intelligence and sentience, Edge of Sentience (Oxford University Press 2024), Insect sentience, Jonathan Birch, Marc Bekoff, Sentience vs. intelligence, Unborn children and sentience}

Edge of Sentience Summarizes Research on Animals’, AIs’ Feelings

_{And animal rights laws as well. But there is a dark side to Jonathan Birch’s approach too…} _{Denyse O'Leary
January 3, 2025

7

Animal mind, Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Law}

Philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, principal investigator of the Animal Sentience Project at the London School of Economics, has written a book on whether and how animals feel things: The Edge of Sentience (Oxford University Press 2024). It’s not as arcane a topic as it might at first appear. It shows up in new legislation and think tanks. At Amazon, we learn, for example, “In 2021, he led a review for the UK government that shaped the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. In 2022-23, he was part of a working group that investigated the question of sentience in AI.” And as Birch told Marc Bekoff at Psychology Today, I’m probably best-known for my work on invertebrate sentience, which is one part Read More ›

Gallipoli, Canakkale, Turkey; close up of an octopus eye (Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797). Generative AI

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Evolution, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Ed Yong, Grygoriy Zolotarov, Jonathan Birch, Octoculture, octopus, Octopus (and pain), Octopus (intelligence), Octopus brain, Octopus intelligence and jumping genes, Robyn Crook}

Octopus Intelligence Shakes Up Darwin’s Tree

_{There does not seem to be a Tree of Intelligence, which deepens the mystery of intelligence} _{Denyse O'Leary
September 16, 2023

7

Evolution, Natural Intelligence}

The octopus is a short-lived, exothermic, invertebrate loner - how can it be intelligent? Yet it is. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 30, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Jonathan Birch, suicide}

Is Depression an Altered Global State of Consciousness?

_{Cecily Whiteley and Jonathan Birch from the London School of Economics and Political Science argue that altered consciousness prevents depressed people from just "seeing the bright side"} _{Denyse O'Leary
December 30, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships}

PhD student Cecily Whiteley and philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, both of the London School of Economics and Political Science, think that depression is often misunderstood. In this 2021 article, noted again at Psyche, they point out that it is not just “feeling low”; it is an altered form of consciousness: The psychologist Andrew Solomon hints at some of these transformations in his memoir The Noonday Demon (2001): “When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better. Being upset, even profoundly upset, Read More ›

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 23, 2021

Categorized
Law, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Cephalopods, Invertebrates (intelligence), Invertebrates (sentience), Jonathan Birch, Lobsters (intelligence), Octopuses (intelligence)}

British Government Moves To Protect Octopuses From Cruelty

_{The move to protect cephalopods and crabs/lobsters follows from research showing their intelligence and awareness of pain} _{Denyse O'Leary
November 23, 2021

6

Law, Natural Intelligence}

Following a report from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the British government has decided to extend animal protection laws to include “cephalopods (including octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) and decapods (including crabs, lobsters and crayfish).” No, this is not just another nut moment along the lines of “Salad is plant murder!” There’s a background: Researchers have discovered in recent decades that some invertebrates, especially those with complex central nervous systems, are much more intelligent and capable of experiencing pain (sentient) than we used to think. As George Dvorsky explains at Gizmodo, the British government introduced the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill in May. The bill defined sentient animals as animals with backbones (vertebrates). However, scientists have known for some Read More ›