Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
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Music by: The New Year: thenewyear.net
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/149
William B. Miller is an ex-physician turned evolutionary biologist. In this episode, we discuss topics related to his new book, Bioverse: How the Cellular World Contains the Secrets to Life's Biggest Questions. The premise of the book is that all individual cells are intelligent in their own right, and possess a sense of self. From this, Bill makes the case that cells cooperate with other cells to engineer whole organisms that in turn serve as wonderful hosts for the myriad cell types. Further, our bodies are collections of our own cells (with our DNA), and an enormous amount and diversity of foreign cells - our microbiome - that communicate and cooperate with each other and with our own cells. We also discuss how cell intelligence compares to human intelligence, what Bill calls the "era of the cell" in science, how the future of medicine will harness the intelligence of cells and their cooperative nature, and much more.
0:00 - Intro
3:43 - Bioverse
7:29 - Bill's cell appreciation origins
17:03 - Microbiomes
27:01 - Complexity of microbiomes and the "Era of the cell"
46:00 - Robustness
55:05 - Cell vs. human intelligence
1:10:08 - Artificial intelligence
1:21:01 - Neuro-AI
1:25:53 - Hard problem of consciousness
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
patreon.com/braininspired
Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year: thenewyear.net
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/149
William B. Miller is an ex-physician turned evolutionary biologist. In this episode, we discuss topics related to his new book, Bioverse: How the Cellular World Contains the Secrets to Life's Biggest Questions. The premise of the book is that all individual cells are intelligent in their own right, and possess a sense of self. From this, Bill makes the case that cells cooperate with other cells to engineer whole organisms that in turn serve as wonderful hosts for the myriad cell types. Further, our bodies are collections of our own cells (with our DNA), and an enormous amount and diversity of foreign cells - our microbiome - that communicate and cooperate with each other and with our own cells. We also discuss how cell intelligence compares to human intelligence, what Bill calls the "era of the cell" in science, how the future of medicine will harness the intelligence of cells and their cooperative nature, and much more.
0:00 - Intro
3:43 - Bioverse
7:29 - Bill's cell appreciation origins
17:03 - Microbiomes
27:01 - Complexity of microbiomes and the "Era of the cell"
46:00 - Robustness
55:05 - Cell vs. human intelligence
1:10:08 - Artificial intelligence
1:21:01 - Neuro-AI
1:25:53 - Hard problem of consciousness
