Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: NBN Book of the Day
Episode: Gary Tomlinson, "The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning" (Zone Books, 2023)
Description: What is meaning? How does it arise? Where is it found in the world? In recent years, philosophers and scientists have answered these questions in different ways. Some see meaning as a uniquely human achievement, others extend it to trees, microbes, and even to the bonding of DNA and RNA molecules. In this groundbreaking book, Gary Tomlinson defines a middle path. Combining emergent thinking about evolution, new research on animal behaviors, and theories of information and signs, he tracks meaning far out into the animal world. At the same time he discerns limits to its scope and identifies innumerable...