Thoughtforms Life
Michael Levin
A podcast by Professor Michael Levin exploring the frontiers of biology, cognition, and emergence. Engage in conversations about morphogenesis, bioelectricity, and synthetic life — and uncover how intelligence and agency emerge from the most fundamental levels of nature.
Episodes
Mentioned books
4 snips
Feb 20, 2023 • 58min
Conversation Between Richard Watson, Iain McGilchrist, and Michael Levin
Richard Watson, futurist studying evolution, learning and machine intelligence, and Iain McGilchrist, neuropsychiatrist probing brain hemisphere differences, join Michael Levin for a wide-ranging conversation. They explore whether evolution can be intelligent, how brains balance induction and deduction, where biological form and memory reside, and how simple feedback scales into goal-directed anatomy. Short, speculative, and provocative.
Feb 16, 2023 • 60min
Engineering with Agential Materials: From Evolution to Biological Robotics, via Bioelectricity
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The Levin Lab
Feb 14, 2023 • 1h 4min
Beyond the Brain: Multiscale Diverse Intelligence as Biological Inspiration for AI
This is a talk I gave to an audience of computer scientists and neuroscientists, interested in AI, consciousness, and the brain.
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The Levin Lab
Feb 5, 2023 • 1h 3min
Bioelectric Networks Underlie the Intelligence of the Body
This is a talk given to the Department of Biotechnology at Indian Institute of Technology Madras in January 2023.
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The Levin Lab
Jan 28, 2023 • 1h 21min
Diverse Intelligence
A talk on "Diverse Intelligence: understanding and relating to unconventional biological, engineered, and hybrid agents" by Michael Levin
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The Levin Lab
Jan 27, 2023 • 56min
Michael Levin Talk on Bioelectricity at Stanford Chemical Engineering Colloquium
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The Levin Lab
Jan 27, 2023 • 57min
Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist
Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist and writer known for his work on brain lateralization, joins Michael Levin. They explore how brain hemispheres shape attention and time perception. They discuss biological asymmetry from cells to organisms. Conversation touches on memory, identity, and how mind and matter interact.
Jan 27, 2023 • 57min
Discussion: Chris Fields, Mark Solms, Michael Levin
Discussion: Chris Fields, Mark Solms, Michael Levin
Mark Solms - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ&hl=en
Chris Fields - https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/
CONNECT WITH ME:
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The Levin Lab
15 snips
Jan 27, 2023 • 1h 12min
Conversation between Douglas Brash, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin
Michael Levin speaks with Chris Fields, an interdisciplinary researcher at the crossroads of physics, cognition, and AI, and Douglas Brash, a molecular biologist studying sunlight, skin cancer, and developmental puzzles. They explore cellular competency, how cells communicate and coordinate like tiny agents, evolutionary consequences for development and cancer, and how simple local goals yield complex collective behavior.
Jan 27, 2023 • 57min
Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist
Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist, writer and philosopher known for work on brain lateralization, discusses attention, meaning, and how the brain’s hemispheres shape experience. They explore origins of lateralization, bioelectric signaling across scales, memory versus present experience, and how different hemispheric ways of knowing affect continuity, identity, and science’s search for meaning.
