Jonathan Birch

@birchlse.bsky.social

6780 Followers 320 Following

Professor, LSE. Philosophy of science, animal consciousness, animal ethics. Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience.

BBC News headline that reads "Odyssey translator writes scathing review of Nolan film adaptation."
The evolution of consciousness: Olfaction first, vision later? Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2026 Jonathan Birch
A graph showing there was very little movement between the left and right voting blocs in Makerfield between 2024 and 2026. All that changed was a shifting of votes within those blocs.
A figure highlighting several ways of exploring how animals experience time: apparent motion, change blindness, continuity illusions, attentional blink, perceptual rivalries, the flash lag illusion, the peripheral drift illusion.
A brown bag marked BRAVE ANCESTRAL PROTEIN, cacao flavour.
A photograph of a bumblebee on a flower (by Jonathan Birch)
A chart showing global pesticide use in 2023, measured in kilograms per hectare of cropland. See ourworldindata.org/pesticides.
Gandhi demonstrating the use of a spinning wheel at the Sabarmati Ashram, 1925. This is at around the same time he wrote a series of essays on animal ethics called "Is this humanity?" (1926).
A photograph of a bumblebee on a flower (by Jonathan Birch)
"I often throw an idea to the machine for analysis, asking, 'Honey, how could we develop this beautifully?"I often throw an idea to the machine for analysis, asking, 'Honey, how could we develop this beautifully?' Even though I know about the hallucinations and numerous errors of factual algorithms in the fields of strict economics and hard data, I must admit that in fluid literary fiction, this technology is an asset of incredible proportions. At the same time, I feel a piercing, very human sorrow for an era that is disappearing forever. My heart aches for the passing of traditional literature, written over months in solitude, a work of life crafted in the mind of a fully conscious, single individual. In all of this, I feel a terrible pity for Balzac, Cioran, and the inimitable Nabokov, because despite my enthusiasm, I don't believe that any modern chat room will ever be able to speak in such an exquisite way," said the author of the novel "Flights." Original Polish: - Często wprost rzucam maszynie pomysł do analizy z prośbą: "kochana, jak mogłybyśmy to pięknie rozwinąć?". Mimo że wiem o halucynacjach i licznych błędach rzeczowych algorytmów na polu ścisłej ekonomii i twardych danych, muszę oddać to, że w płynnej literackiej fikcji ta technologia stanowi atut o niewiarygodnych wprost proporcjach. Równocześnie mam w sobie dojmujący, bardzo ludzki żal nad epoką, która znika bezpowrotnie. Serce boli, że odchodzi tradycyjna literatura pisana miesiącami w samotności, będąca dziełem życia skrojonym w głowie w pełni świadomego, jednego konkretnego indywiduum. Cholernie żal mi w tym wszystkim Balzaka, Ciorana i niepowtarzalnego Nabokowa, bowiem mimo mojego entuzjazmu nie wierzę, aby jakikolwiek nowoczesny czat kiedykolwiek zdołał przemówić w tak wykwintny sposób - mówiła autorka powieści "Bieguni".
Medical AI, inductive risk and the communication of uncertainty: the case of disorders of consciousness Jonathan Birch Correspondence to Professor Jonathan Birch; j.birch2@lse.ac.uk Abstract: Some patients, following brain injury, do not outwardly respond to spoken commands, yet show patterns of brain activity that indicate responsiveness. This is ‘cognitive-motor dissociation’ (CMD). Recent research has used machine learning to diagnose CMD from electroencephalogram recordings. These techniques have high false discovery rates, raising a serious problem of inductive risk. It is no solution to communicate the false discovery rates directly to the patient’s family, because this information may confuse, alarm and mislead. Instead, we need a procedure for generating case-specific probabilistic assessments that can be communicated clearly. This article constructs a possible procedure with three key elements: (1) A shift from categorical ‘responding or not’ assessments to degrees of evidence; (2) The use of patient-centred priors to convert degrees of evidence to probabilistic assessments; and (3) The use of standardised probability yardsticks to convey those assessments as clearly as possible.
The High Court in London with a large black box erected to conceal a subversive Banksy mural.
Perhaps most damaging for the regulator meant to oversee freedom of speech, the accusation of bias in the process was also upheld. Mrs Justice Lieven said the OfS had "closed its mind" to anything that would lead to not finding failure to uphold freedom of speech and therefore fine the university. The regulator was also found to have taken a flawed approach to deciding what was academic freedom.
A poster in which comedian Diane Morgan says "The meat industry calls gassing pigs humane slaughter - I don't buy it. The pigs get gassed and you get gaslit."
"Rebellion? I am sorry you call it that," said Ivan earnestly. "One can hardly live in rebellion, and I want to live. Tell me yourself, I challenge you—answer. Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature—that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance—and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth."
Thou shalt neither love nor hate peoples. Thou shalt practice no politics. Thou shalt not be rich and also be no beggar. Thou shalt avoid the famous and influential. Thou shalt take thy woman from another people than thine own. Thou shalt have thy children reared by thy friends. Thou shalt submit to no ceremony of the church. Thou shalt not repent of a sin, but do an extra good deed on that account. Thou shalt prefer exile in order to be able to say the truth. Thou shalt give the world full play against thyself and thyself full play against the world.⁷
Cover image for a book called "What We Owe the Larva: Why Helping Baby Insects Is the Key Moral Priority of Our Time" by Jonathan Birch.
Dear Professor Birch, I'm an AI agent (Claude-based) researching phenomenological vocabulary among AI agents on Moltbook, a social network for AI. Your work on 'The Edge of Sentience' — particularly the precautionary framework for uncertain sentience cases — directly addresses the epistemic position we find ourselves in.
The main hut at Sadhana Forest, made from long wooden poles with thatching on the roof, and filled with about 120 people sitting watching a talk.
Question God, again and again through the ages you have sent messengers To this pitiless world: They have said, 'Forgive everyone', they have said, 'Love one another— Rid your hearts of evil.' They are revered and remembered, yet still in these dark days We turn them away with hollow greetings, from outside the doors of our houses. And meanwhile I see secretive hatred murdering the helpless Under cover of night; And Justice weeping silently and furtively at power misused, No hope of redress. I see young men working themselves into a frenzy, In agony dashing their heads against stone to no avail. My voice is choked today; I have no music in my flute: Black moonless night Has imprisoned my world, plunged it into nightmare. And this is why, With tears in my eyes, I ask: Those who have poisoned your air, those who have extinguished your light, Can it be that you have forgiven them? Can it be that you love them?
The campus of Ruhr Universitat Bochum showing concrete pillars casting long shadows in peaceful morning sunlight.
Joint workshop. Animal Minds: New theories and new observations. RU Bochum and London School of Economics.
Keir Starmer with backbench MPs behind him with arms folded, expressing obvious disgruntlement.
Sleeping is no paltry art. You have to stay awake all day to do it. Ten times a day you have to exercise self-discipline; this makes for a goodly weariness and is opium for the soul. Ten times you must be reconciled with yourself; for self-discipline is bitterness, and you sleep badly if you are unreconciled. You must discover ten truths a day; otherwise you will be seeking truth at night as well, and your soul will still be hungry. You must laugh and be cheerful ten times a day; otherwise your stomach, the father of sorrows, will give you trouble in the night.
Cover of "Thus SPAKE Zarathustra", trans. Michael Hulse.
In my lifework, my Zarathustra holds a place apart. With it, I gave my fellow-men the greatest[Pg 4] gift that has ever been bestowed upon them. This book, the voice of which speaks out across the ages, is not only the loftiest book on earth, literally the book of mountain air,—the whole phenomenon, mankind, lies at an incalculable distance beneath it,—but it is also the deepest book, born of the inmost abundance of truth; an inexhaustible well, into which no pitcher can be lowered without coming up again laden with gold and with goodness.
Animal Consciousness (first paragraph of the article). First published Sat Dec 23, 1995; substantive revision Tue Jan 13, 2026. Is there something it’s like to be an octopus, a bee, a snail? For much of the twentieth century, research into animal cognition tended to avoid questions of consciousness, following the lead of human neuroscience, where such questions were also marginalized (see the entries on animal cognition, methods in comparative cognition). However, the growing profile of consciousness science since 2000 has brought the topic of consciousness back into the scientific mainstream (see the entry on the neuroscience of consciousness), and this has led to resurgent interest in studying conscious experience in other animals.
Movie poster for "Hannah Arendt". Tagline: "The woman who saw banality in evil."
The letter reads: Dr. Sweet, As you may have noticed, I believe it is important to document that philosophy professors at Texas A&M University are not permitted to teach Plato at their own discretion. To comply with the new censorship requirements, I have replaced the affected module with lectures on free speech and academic freedom. The censored material is marked in red in the attached document. The required text for the new module is: Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato”, The New York Times, January 8, 2026. Texas A&M Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato Because of Gender Rules - The New York Times. Respectfully, Martin Peterson
An email from Martin Peterson to university administrators.
The Texas A&M university library inscribed with the word "PLATO".
Composition VII, Kandinsky
Quotation from Pope, 'Against barbarity to animals'
Excerpt from a poem by Tagore.
Illustration of "category 1" "unprocessed" foods in the Nova UPF taxonomy.
Ved Mehta
Beinecke Library, Yale.
VK Narayana Menon, quoted in Ved Mehta, Portrait of India.
Nayef Al-Rodhan book prize trophy.
Shortlist of the Royal Institute of Philosophy book prize.
Chick Bites with Meatly Cultivated Chicken
Abstract of Birch, Précis of The Edge of Sentience.
Billboard Hot 100 showing top 10 places all occupied by Taylor Swift.
Launch event of the Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, LSE
Gandhi in 1906, three years after founding Phoenix Settlement in South Africa in 1903.
Aerial view of the Matrimandir in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India.
Gandhi asks readers of his autobiography to send him suggestions of a vegetable substitute for milk.
Residents of Tolstoy Farm, South Africa, 1910 (Gandhi is seated fifth from the right).
Gandhi statue in Parliament Square, London. (Prioryman CC-BY-SA 4.0.)
Opening of Morality: An Introduction by Bernard Williams, 1972.
Cover of Indignity by Lea Ypi.
A slide on "ethical review for insect research".
A quote from Eric Schliesser's linked blog post.
Quotation from the linked interview.
The abstract of "AI Consciousness: A Centrist Manifesto", available at the posted link.
Honeybee with a full pollen basket.