Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World

Godfrey-Smith (Metazoa), a philosophy of science professor at the University of Sydney, presents a cerebral meditation on “the history of how life has changed the Earth.” He explains how three billion years ago, microorganisms called cyanobacteria started photosynthesizing, pumping oxygen into the atmosphere and paving the way for complex organisms. Ancient algae “crept onto land sometime around 450 million years ago,” Godfrey-Smith writes, describing how the emergence of forests with large root systems some 40 million years later reshaped terrain by holding together riverbanks and redirecting currents. Arguing that animals are “causes rather than evolutionary products” of their environment, Godfrey-Smith describes how some octopuses dig tunnels 50 centimeters deep and how male bowerbirds build vertical nestlike structures to impress potential mates. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to follow the author’s train of thought in the latter half of the book, which is aimed at answering, “What are minds doing here?” To “guide action,” is the author’s answer, but the broadness of that response leads to meandering discussions on the materialist view of the mind, the origin of consciousness, the relationship between written language and time, and the ethics of farming livestock. There’s no question Godfrey-Smith is an erudite and profound thinker, but he’s not always successful in organizing his ideas in ways that readers will understand. This doesn’t quite fulfill its lofty ambitions. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)