Best Morphogenesis Podcasts (2025)

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Patterns of Form and Behavior Beyond Emergence by Michael Levin 1:13:34

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28d ago1:13:34

1:13:34

This is a ~1 hour 15 minute talk titled "Patterns of Form and Behavior Beyond Emergence: how Platonic Space in-forms evolved, engineered, and hybrid embodied minds", which is the kickoff talk for our Symposium on Platonic Space (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/). Here I go slowly step by step to review the data that motiva…

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Biological and Technological Information Processing 35:54

1M ago35:54

35:54

This is a ~35 minute talk on commonalities and differences between biological and technological information processing, and the implications for AI (given at the AGI-25 conference in Iceland). The full program, including Hananel Hazan's talk (which is the 2nd half of mine), is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdftA37yZJw. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast…

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Unconventional Embodiments of Consciousness: A Diverse Intelligence Research Program - Michael Levin 46:46

2M ago46:46

46:46

This is a ~46 minute talk given at a conference on consciousness, presenting my lab's data on cognition in body organs outside the brain and then some speculations about the mind-body connection more generally (fleshing out my Platonic space model with symmetries between brain:mind relationships and mathematics:physics relationships). CONNECT WITH …

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Against Mind-blindness: Recognizing and Communicating with Agential Materials and Beyond - Michael Levin 1:07:08

2M ago1:07:08

1:07:08

This is a ~1 hour 7 minute talk I gave at the SEMF Interdisciplinary School (July 2025, https://semf.org.es/school2025/#speakers-container) on agency ways to think about expanding our ability to detect and communicate with unconventional minds. The same talk but with a lengthy Q&A will be up on the SEMF website. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website You…

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Beyond Complexity & Emergence: Taming Multiscale Competency in Agential Materials 54:05

2M ago54:05

54:05

This is a ~54 minute talk given at a workshop on complexity. Many of the examples are the same ones I often talk about but this talk is focused on explaining how biology deals with complexity, and ways to think about complex patterns of form and behavior beyond the conventional approach of emergence. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple P…

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Engineering Agential Materials 27:20

3M ago27:20

27:20

This is a ~18 min talk plus ~10 min Q&A on a top-down approach to bioengineering and robotics that I gave at the Biohybrid Robotics Symposium in Switzerland in July 2025 (https://biohybrid-robotics.com/). CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin LabBy Michael Levin

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Discussion with Michael Johnson 55:20

3M ago55:20

55:20

This is a ~55 minute conversation with Michael Johnson (https://t.co/YxAOZif0V2) covering topics of spectrum of consciousness down to the cell (and below) level, implicit memory and cellular pixels of experience, Platonic space, symmetry breaking, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation in systems. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podc…

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Unconventional Selves - a Diverse Intelligence Perspective on Consciousness by Michael Levin 1:11:51

3M ago1:11:51

1:11:51

"Unconventional selves in novel spaces, scales, and embodiments - a diverse intelligence perspective on a continuum of cognition and consciousness" is a ~1 hour 12 min talk I gave at a conference on consciousness (https://www.hardproblem.it/), as it relates to our work on diverse intelligence and unconventional cognition. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast W…

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Nothing in Biology Makes Sense without Teleology 1:18:54

3M ago1:18:54

1:18:54

This is a deliberately provocative talk (~1 hour 20 minutes) I gave on teleology (a pretty taboo subject in a lot of the life sciences) delivered at Caltech. I try to go step by step and show the philosophical background of how I think about goal-directedness in physically embodied agents (cells and tissues etc.) and then the data - classic example…

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Discussion with Murray Shanahan 25:24

3M ago25:24

25:24

This is a ~25 minute discussion with Murray Shanahan (https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~mpsha/) on topics following up on his talk in our Center (https://youtu.be/ZlKc3ebLgEI?si=Tmq5gOwVDi4t-pip). CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin LabBy Michael Levin

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Discussion between Adam Safron, Max Shen, and Michael Levin 59:14

3M ago59:14

59:14

This is a ~1 hour discussion with Adam Safron (https://www.adamsafron.com/) and Max Shen (https://www.maxkshen.com/home), and Michael Levinabout diverse intelligence and its relevance for pain. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin LabBy Michael Levin

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Discussion with David Spivak 57:14

3M ago57:14

57:14

This is a ~1 hour discussion with mathematician David Spivak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Spivak) about issues related to goal-directedness and some puzzles around mathematical vs. physical constants (see https://thoughtforms.life/why-the-tight-clustering-of-mathematical-constants/ for more details on that question). CONNECT WITH ME: Podcas…

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Endogenous Bioelectrical Networks: An Interface to Somatic Intelligence 51:00

3M ago51:00

51:00

This is a ~55 min talk by Michael Levin "Endogenous Bioelectrical Networks: an interface to somatic intelligence for regenerative medicine", going over the state of the art in developmental bioelectricity in the context of collaborating with the cellular collective intelligence for applications in birth defects, regeneration, and cancer. It has som…

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Against Mind-Blindness 56:35

3M ago56:35

56:35

This is a new ~1 hour talk by me on the concept of diverse intelligence, and morphogenesis as a model system with which to practice identifying and communicating with unconventional minds. This is a bit different than previous ones because I explicitly go over examples of how some of our various data on bioelectrics addresses each of several key pr…

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Chemical AI: An Unconventional Strategy for Mimicking Biological Intelligence - Pier Luigi Gentili 58:25

4M ago58:25

58:25

This is a ~1 hour total presentation by Pier Luigi Gentili (https://www.pierluigigentili.com/) and brainstorming session about chemical intelligence and its relationship to the broader field of diverse intelligence. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…

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Bioelectric Networks as the Interface to Somatic Intelligence: Toward a New Regenerative Medicine 50:53

4M ago50:53

50:53

This is a ~50 minute talk by me (given at IIT Mandi yesterday) on bioelectricity from the perspective of both, a path to regenerative medicine of birth defects, injury repair, and cancer, and a model system for learning to communicate with unconventional collective intelligences. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitt…

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Conversation with Benjamin Lyons, Mark Blumberg, and Karen Adolph: Motor Development and Cognition 36:00

4M ago36:00

36:00

This is a ~30 minute conversation with Benjamin Lyons (https://benjaminflyons.com/), Mark Blumberg (https://blumberg.lab.uiowa.edu), and Karen Adolph (https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/karen-adolph.html) on the field of motor development and behavior in humans and other animals, and the ties between that field and the morphogenetic intelligence of embryog…

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Against Mind-Blindness: Recognizing and Communicating With Diverse Intelligences 35:49

4M ago35:49

35:49

This is a ~35 minute talk about diverse intelligence and our efforts to establish formalisms and methods for communicating with unconventional biological intelligences. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Expanding Mind Blindness (02:50) Recognizing Diverse Minds (05:00) Embodied Agent Origins (08:40) Anatomical Intelligence Spaces (12:40) Bioelectricity: Body's Glu…

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Scaling Intelligence in Biology, Artificial Life, and Beyond 24:04

5M ago24:04

24:04

This is a ~20 minute very rapid talk reviewing ideas around the scaling of intelligence in unconventional substrates. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Intro & Unconventional Concepts (00:40) Challenging Traditional Worldviews (01:40) Life as Continua (03:00) Electromagnetic Spectrum Analogy (04:30) Spectrum of Mind Applications (05:50) Single Cell to Mind (07:10)…

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Culture as an Additional Scale of Biological Organisation with Ivan Kroupin and Tian Chen Zeng 56:54

5M ago56:54

56:54

This is a short summary talk by Ivan Kroupin (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XjxueRYAAAAJ&hl=en) and Tian Chen Zeng (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tian-Chen-Zeng) and then a discussion of issues around biological and cultural multi-scale intelligence. Their longer talk is here: https://youtu.be/dYuNJSilRMo?si=gVvMV_N4pjloe0iX CONN…

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Ethics and the New Biology 32:33

5M ago32:33

32:33

This is a ~30 minute talk to an Ethics class (undergraduates) about aspects of our work that have implications for ethics. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Intelligence All The Way Down (06:30) Scaling Up Cognition (13:40) Communicating With Cellular Intelligence (20:00) Freedom of Embodiment (27:40) Ethics of Future Beings CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTub…

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Conversation with Frank Putnam and Alexey Tolchinsky 56:30

5M ago56:30

56:30

This is a ~1 hour conversation with Frank Putnam (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KLGgJg4AAAAJ&hl=en) and Alexey Tolchinsky (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tiBKmrsAAAAJ&hl=en) about dissociative disorders, clinical psychology, and their applications to the cell biology of regenerative medicine and cancer. CONNECT WITH ME: Podca…

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Discussion with Michael Johnson 50:34

5M ago50:34

50:34

This is a ~50 minute conversation with Michael Johnson (https://t.co/YxAOZif0V2) on vasocomputation, stress as cognitive glue, and more generally computation and cognition in unconventional substrates. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin LabBy Michael Levin

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How Does It Know? Bioelectricity as Memory Medium, Cognitive Glue, & Path to Regenerative Medicine 1:00:28

6M ago1:00:28

1:00:28

This is a ~1 hour talk on the field of developmental bioelectricity from a perspective of cognitive science and the homology between mechanisms of self-assembly of somatic and brain-based intelligence. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin LabBy Michael Levin

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Uncovering Electrodynamic Design Principles of Living Cells 55:56

6M ago55:56

55:56

This is a ~1 hour talk by Jack Tuszynski (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Tuszy%C5%84ski, https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/jackt) on electrical and electromagnetic properties of microtubules. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin LabBy Michael Levin

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Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak 57:15

6M ago57:15

57:15

This is a ~1 hour conversation with Alexey Tolchinsky (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexey-Tolchinsky), a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, Center for Professional Psychology, and Thomas Pollak (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-0810), a neuropsychiatrist and researcher working at the Institute …

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Conversation with Lauren Ross 57:52

6M ago57:52

57:52

This is a ~1 hour discussion with philosopher of science Lauren Ross (https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~rossl/), on the topic of explanation and causation - what does it mean to look for explanations in science, what counts as a good explanation, and how do you know you've got one.Lauren's book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/explanation-in-bi…

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Interview with Azra Raza on a New Theory and Practice of Cancer 59:12

7M ago59:12

59:12

This is a ~1 hour conversation of Aastha Jain Simes (https://www.livelongerworld.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/aasthajs) and Azra Raza on her unique and passionate journey in oncology and her ideas for cancer therapy. Azra is an amazing person, clinician, and scientist; see more of her work at:Columbia web page: https://www.cancer.columbia.edu/…

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Life, Mind, and Computing: A Diverse Intelligence Perspective 33:08

7M ago33:08

33:08

This is a very fast (~33min) flyover of some ideas relevant to the relationship between biology, computation, cognition, consciousness, and related subjects. This was given at the amazing Progress and Visions in Consciousness Science series (https://amcs-community.org/events/progress-visions-series/) as the prologue to a discussion. CHAPTERS: (00:0…

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Cellular Automata and Models of Health and Disease 35:40

7M ago35:40

35:40

This is a ~35 minute discussion with Willem Nielsen (https://community.wolfram.com/web/wrn2001, https://medium.com/@wnielsen) from the Wolfram Institute about their cellular automata models of disease and our approach to this problem. Papers to which I referred:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00018-023-04790-zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1099-43…

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Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist 1:11:57

7M ago1:11:57

1:11:57

This is an ~1 hour 10 minute conversation with Iain McGilchrist (https://channelmcgilchrist.com/home/), on the topic of my recent paper on the Platonic Space (https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5g2xj_v3) - forms ingressing into the physical world in biology, causation, evolution, and mind. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spot…

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Bioelectric Networks: An Interface to Engineering with the Agential Material of Life 1:02:32

7M ago1:02:32

1:02:32

This is a ~1 hour talk (given at the Departmental Seminar series at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences) on the use of a cognitive approach to bioengineering and regenerative medicine, in which morphogenesis is the behavior (in anatomical space) of a collective intelligence of cellular swarms. I describe our …

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Aastha Jain Simes and I Interview Pamela Lyon 1:19:45

7M ago1:19:45

1:19:45

This a ~1 hour 20 minute conversation between Aastha Jain Simes (https://www.livelongerworld.com/), Pamela Lyon (https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=1oY1J5kAAAAJ&hl=en), and I. Pamela is a key figure in the development of a biogenic approach to mind, and we talked about her journey to understanding cognition. A few of her papers:https://ae…

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Discussion with Mayli Mertens on Molecular Placebos and Bioelectricity 29:54

7M ago29:54

29:54

This is a ~30 minute conversation with Mayli Mertens (Marie Curie Postdoctoral fellow at University of Antwerp, https://philpeople.org/profiles/mayli-mertens) and I on the topic of molecular placebos, bioelectricity, and self-fulfilling prophecies in medicine (the latter being the title of her recent paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007…

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Biological and Technological Information Processing: Commonalities, Differences and Implications 1:00:54

7M ago1:00:54

1:00:54

This is a ~1 hr talk on what is similar and what is different between biological and (current) technological information-processing systems, and the implications for biomedicine, AI, and ethics. A version of this talk with Q&A at the TPC consortium at Argonne National Lab is at https://tpc.dev/tpc-seminar-series/ CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website Yo…

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Conversation 2 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin 59:13

7M ago59:13

59:13

This is a ~1 hour conversation on topics of consciousness, 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 Podc…

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Conversation with Richard Watson and Leo Caves 1:29:36

8M ago1:29:36

1:29:36

This is a ~1.5 hour conversation with Richard Watson (https://www.richardawatson.com/) and Leo Caves (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leo-Caves, https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=Oov_zsoAAAAJ&hl=en) about issues of resonance, unconventional cognition, observers, process philosophy, etc. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple …

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A Conversation with Mark Solms on Life and Mind 1:54:56

8M ago1:54:56

1:54:56

This is a ~2-hour Q&A with Mark Solms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Solms) at the "Public conversation about their work and its implications for psychoanalysis" series of the Annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…

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Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak 55:20

8M ago55:20

55:20

This is a ~1 hour conversation between Alexey Tolchinsky (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/alexey-tolchinsky-psyd ), a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, Center for Professional Psychology, and Thomas Pollak (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-0810), a neuropsychiatrist and researcher worki…

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Discussion with Robert Prentner and Timothy Jackson 1:09:41

8M ago1:09:41

1:09:41

This is a ~1 hour 10 minute discussion with Robert Prentner (https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=ZYcFVxoAAAAJ&hl=en) and Timothy Jackson (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vOnot8oAAAAJ&hl=en) about Platonism and related concepts. The paper of mine that they reference at some point is: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5g2xj_v3; also an…

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Conversation with Buck Trible on His Work on Static Allometry of Ant Castes and Emergent Cognition 1:02:35

8M ago1:02:35

1:02:35

This is a ~1 hour conversation with Buck Trible (https://triblelab.fas.harvard.edu/people/waring-buck-trible, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JLN0AT0AAAAJ&hl=en) about his fascinating work on the genetics, morphology, behavior, and sociality in ants. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin La…

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Unconventional Biology, Minimal Models of Intelligence, and Bio-Inspired Computing 1:10:01

8M ago1:10:01

1:10:01

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 evo…

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Neuroscience Beyond Neurons: How Somatic Bioelectricity Implements an Unconventional Intelligence 1:08:22

8M ago1:08:22

1:08:22

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 …

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Conversation 1 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin 1:01:41

9M ago1:01:41

1:01:41

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 You…

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Conversation Between Aaron Sloman, Anthony Leggett, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin 1:04:38

9M ago1:04:38

1:04:38

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.htmlhttps://cogaffarchive.org/evol-devol.html CONNECT WITH ME: …

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Novel Bodies, Unconventional Minds: Diverse Intelligence and the Study of Consciousness 1:20:54

9M ago1:20:54

1:20:54

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…

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Bernardo Kastrup, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin - Conversation 1:21:48

9M ago1:21:48

1:21:48

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…

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Collective Intelligence of the Body: The Multiscale Architecture of Selves 53:47

10M ago53:47

53:47

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. CONNE…

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Self-Constructing Bodies, Collective Minds: The Intersection of CS, Cognitive Bio, and Philosophy 1:12:57

10M ago1:12:57

1:12:57

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 un…

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Discussion with Martin Hanczyc: Minimal Models of Cognition and Active Matter Research 48:59

10M ago48:59

48:59

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…