Simon Brown
Philosopher of mind/cog sci studying animal minds, memory,
consciousness, temporal representation, & implications for animal ethics/policy.
Asst. Prof. @ Ashoka University, India. Formerly postdoc @ London School of Economics & Johns Hopkins University
- Reposted by Simon BrownImagination in bonobos! I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
- Now with an official Teaching and Learning Guide! compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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- Reposted by Simon BrownPlease make it your new resolution to visit AskHistorians once a week, because we've never been this invested in overtaking another community.
- My Hindi is terrible and most Delhi delivery drivers' English isn't much better, so we often have to rely on google translate. Mix this with lack of standardisation in how Hindi is spelled in Latin alphabet and the results can be glorious:
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- Reposted by Simon BrownA new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.
- Reposted by Simon BrownMy Centre is a unique place to do a PhD in Philosophy, because you can be in constant contact with experts in veterinary medicine, psychology, zoology and policy and be part of a team united by a shared interest in animal minds. We now have our 1st ever PhD scholarship: www.lse.ac.uk/sentience/phd
- In an event which appears to have been real rather than a fever dream of Carol J. Adams, Friedrich Hayek once molested a bull so that a photograph could be sent to Margaret Thatcher with the caption "Hayek's Got Inflation By The Balls" www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...
- Reposted by Simon BrownThe IWRS is hiring! Help us build the infrastructure for invertebrate welfare research—from husbandry databases to educational resources. 🐛📖 Remote Research Scientist position, $55-60K. We will begin reviewing applications on March 15. Learn more and apply here:
- Reposted by Simon BrownNEW: India is avoiding the fossil fuel detour 🪝 Where China built first on coal and gas, India is taking a shortcut >>> read in 5 graphics🧵
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- Reposted by Simon BrownAaaand we're back!! Two Postdocs in Philosophy of Mind (one ot two years), Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp - to work with me! Deadline: March 20, 2026 More info on PhilJobs
- Reposted by Simon BrownNEW – Analysis: UK newspaper editorial opposition to climate action overtakes support for first time | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @sylviahayes.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/eAPkvkx
- Reposted by Simon BrownFor those cephalopod lovers among you, our new updated review of the evidence for cephalpod sentience has now been published in Biological Reviews. (Sadly the picture is of birds rather than cephalopods, as this is the journal cover!) doi.org/10.1002/brv....
- Reposted by Simon Brown📢 Abstract submission and registration reminder! As we celebrate 100 years of UFAW, we invite you to join our 3-day conference to explore the latest developments in #AnimalWelfareScience More details and submission portal: scienceforanimalwelfare2026.org
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- Reposted by Simon BrownRobert Jenrick is unique in British politics for being the only MP who is an anagram of his constituency
- Reposted by Simon BrownPlease share: Pew Research Center will provide $3,000 each for 19 new papers using our recent global datasets. We encourage reuse of our Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures data! pewresearch.org/2026/01/16/seeking-…
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- Reposted by Simon BrownThe utterly shameless & widely covered "report" out today, claiming net zero will "cost" £9tn is based on: * Assuming free fossil-fuel energy, free petrol cars, free gas boilers, free gas power plants etc AND * Including climate damages in the "cost" of net zero I kid you not, it is that stupid
- Reposted by Simon BrownNew paper from the IMC lab! I am very excited about this one. For years, I have been arguing that one of the main claims of the so-called "simulation heuristic" is likely not true for episodic counterfactual thinking, namely that the harder it is to mentally simulate it, the less plausible (1/n)
- Reposted by Simon BrownIf you work on corvid ecology, behaviour, cognition, or conservation, this might be useful for you 👇 I’ve just published CORVIDATA in Scientific Data 🐦 doi.org/10.1038/s415... (1/4)
- Reposted by Simon BrownYour fact of the day: The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in six American citizens suffers a food-borne illness annually. In the UK, the figure is one in 132. bylinetimes.com/2020/02/28/f...
- Reposted by Simon BrownThis report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
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- Reposted by Simon BrownWhen we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
- Reposted by Simon Brown✨️Call for abstracts✨️ Excited to be organizing together with @leonarddung.bsky.social, @birchlse.bsky.social and Albert Newen the RUB-LSE joint workshop "Animal Minds: New Theories and New Observations" Bochum 9-10 Feb 2026 Join us! 🦧🐦🐙🐀🐬🦀🐜 Abstracts due 1 Dec 2025 philevents.org/event/show/1...
- Reposted by Simon BrownAs with climate disturbance, uncertainty provides a good argument to take more action, not less.
- Our new paper led by @manusaunders.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... takes stock of the evidence-base for global insect declines 🦋🐝🪳🪰🦗 and how uncertainty is being leveraged by science denialists to undermine efforts to reverse biodiversity loss 🌍🧪.
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- Now out officially here! Published as part of a special issue on evolutionary functions of consciousness edited by W. Tecumseh Fitch, Colin Allen, & Adina Roskies, which also features fascinating contributions from several leaders in the field! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
- Reposted by Simon BrownWith sequencing of Hitler's DNA making headlines, time for a reminder: analysing a polygenic score from a dead historically-significant figure won't give new insights into that person's behaviour. In a brief paper last year, we used Beethoven's genome to directly illustrate the fallacies involved.🧪👇
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- Reposted by Simon BrownPhD project on the evolution of animal memory now available in my research group, through the TREES DLA: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo.... Come and join us if you're interested in the evolution of animal minds and you want to do some cool experimental evolution!
- Reposted by Simon BrownNow out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
- Evidence for episodic-like memory in infancy is everywhere, if you know how to look for it! It was such a pleasure to write this paper with @lillianbehm.bsky.social and Nick Turk-Browne, out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social. #psychscisky #cogscisky #philsky #cogdev
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- Reposted by Simon BrownFor any unfamiliar with the quality of journalism at Teen Vogue, it's well known for hard-hitting stories on "politically sensitive" topics including climate. Then there's CBS: the only major network to increase climate coverage in the last few years. They just axed nearly their whole climate team.
- Reposted by Simon BrownAcademics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
- Reposted by Simon BrownAre humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
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- Reposted by Simon BrownExcited to announce that Eli Garcia-Pelegrin and I are co-editing a special collection for Animal Cognition on "Social Cognition in a Human World". Do you study how urbanization, pollution, heat stress, fragmentation, ... affects cognition? We want to hear from you! link.springer.com/collections/...
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- Reposted by Simon BrownHey grad students studying animal behavior! Need a little extra research $$? (Don't we all?) Apply for an ABS Student Research Grant! We award grants up to $2,000 to grad students & give feedback on the proposals. Deadline Dec 15. More info here: www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/awards-s...
- Reposted by Simon Brown📣 BIG NEWS EVERYONE. I am so excited to announce… 🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉 The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
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- Interesting scheme. It would be good to see more philosophers advising on environmental ethics and policy, and correspondingly a greater role for environmental ethics within philosophy
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