Thoughtforms Life

This is a 1 hour 10 minute presentation of ideas around the architecture of biology (and how it differs from today's computational systems). Focusing on morphogenesis as a model of collective intelligence, I talk about the intelligence ratchet that results from life's need to creatively interpret information on the cognitive, developmental, and evolutionary scale. I end with some speculative ideas about Platonic space and cognitive patterns therein, which radically enlarge the set of beings. Th... CHAPTERS:(00:00) Introduction: Body, Mind Symmetry(05:00) Diverse Biological Intelligence Examples(12:50) Multi-Scale Competency Architecture(19:00) Collective Morphospace Intelligence(24:00) Bioelectric Communication Interface(29:30) Rewriting Anatomical Memories(38:00) Selfhood and Collective Goals(46:00) Unreliable Substrate, Creative Problem-Solving(55:30) Exploring Novel Forms, Patterns(01:06:30) Summary and Future Research CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~1 hr10min talk I gave at a conference on modeling aspects of neuroscience. The talk is about the inverse idea - how tools and concepts from neuroscience apply far beyond neurons and brains, and can help understand a lot of biology across development, evolution, and diverse intelligence. I talked about what the symmetry between cognitive science and the study of morphogenesis means for biomedicine and for some questions in behavioral/cognitive science. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~1 hour conversation on topics of consciousness, AI, causation, affect, evolution, and philosophy between Gunnar Babcock (https://cals.cornell.edu/gunnar-babcock), Daniel McShea (https://scholars.duke.edu/person/dmcshea), Mark Solms (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ&hl=en), and I. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~1 hour talk with Aaron Sloman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Sloman), Anthony Leggett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_James_Leggett), and Chris Fields (https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/). The links to which Aaron refers are: https://cogaffarchive.org/misc/whatlife.html https://cogaffarchive.org/evol-devol.html CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~55 minute talk titled "Novel Bodies, Unconventional Minds: a diverse intelligence perspective on a continuum of cognition (and consciousness)" by Michael Levin given at the CIFAR (https://cifar.ca/next-generation/cifar-neuroscience-of-consciousness-winter-school/) Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, + about 20 min of Q&A. My lab doesn't normally work on consciousness per se, but we do a lot of things that are relevant to questions in the philosophy of mind so in this talk I ... CHAPTERS:(00:00) Introduction and Talk Outline(03:00) Challenging Conventional Categories(06:00) Unusual Biology and Cell Journey(12:00) Collective Intelligence and Problem Spaces(19:00) Morphogenesis Collective Intelligence(24:00) Bioelectrical Networks and Control(30:00) Planaria Memory and Regeneration(34:00) Scale of Self, Cancer(38:00) Patterns from Platonic Space(41:00) Novel Life Forms: Xenobots(48:00) Anthrobots and Beyond CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~1 hour 20 minutes conversation between Bernardo Kastrup (https://www.bernardokastrup.com/), Richatrd Watson (https://www.richardawatson.com/), and me on topics at the intersection of physics, cognition, consciousness, etc. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~55 minute talk on the topic of the "Multiscale Human" (https://humanatlas.io/events/2024-24h/). I cover the topics of "what are we", "implications for biomedicine", and "future beyond human repair" from the perspectives of diverse intelligence at different scales of our bodies and at scales of evolution, development, and cognition. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a 1 hour 12 minute talk presented at the 2nd Symposium on the Philosophy of Computing at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. It covers the ways in which biological computation is different from most of today's computer architectures, and concludes with a different way to think about emergence of cognition (not just complexity or unpredictability) in a way that informs how we think about biological and artificial intelligences. CHAPTERS:(00:00) Biology, Computation, Philosophy(05:50) Unconventional Biological Problem Solving(13:50) Anatomical Morphospace Navigation(21:50) Reading Bioelectric Patterns(31:00) Biology vs. Computing(36:50) Multi-Scale Competency Architecture(45:00) Creative Interpretation, Unreliable Hardware(53:00) Patterns, Machines, Agents(01:00:00) Latent Space of Patterns(01:08:00) Exploring Latent Space(01:15:00) Future of Diverse Intelligence CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~50 minute working meeting between Martin Hanczyc (https://www.martinhanczyc.com/) and Michael Levin, discussing work on autonomous droplets and more generally the field of active and agential matter (physical intelligence, somatic computation, etc.) and conceptual approaches in the field of diverse intelligence. Examples of Martin's work: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37166609 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28985113 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25525912 https://w... CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

This is a ~1 hour talk by Michael Levin, given to the bioengineering department at Northeastern University, on the topic of using bioelectricity as an interface for engineering agential materials. Companion papers are: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-022-00001-9 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33826908 CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab