Discussion with Michael Pollan of new ideas on memories and Selves Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-09 | This is a discussion meeting (~1 hour 20 minutes) between Michael Levin and Michael Pollan (michaelpollan.com) of the new ideas in this paper: osf.io/preprints/osf/4b2wj
Of Causal Structures and Causal Borders by Laryssa Albantakis Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-10-19 | This is a ~1 hour talk by Laryssa Albantakis (https://www.psychiatry.wisc.edu/staff/albantakis-larissa/) on causality, agency, autonomy, and consciousness.https://4c-computational.psychiatry.wisc.edu/
Embodied Minds: discovering diverse intelligence through the lens of biomedicine Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-10-14 | This is a ~45 minute talk given at the Imagining Summit (https://www.artificiality.world/the-imagining-summit/) on Diverse Intelligence and synthbiosis, approaching those topics via communication with cellular collectives in the context of regenerative medicine. The newer material is at the end.
Aastha Jain Simes & I interview Denis Noble Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-10-14 | This is a ~1 hour interview with the great Denis Noble (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Noble), who made seminal contributions to understanding the heartbeat and went on to contribute exciting and counter-paradigm ideas in physiology, evolutionary theory, causation, and other aspects of biology.Some of classic Denis Noble writing:univ.ox.ac.uk/book/the-music-of-life-biology-beyond-genescambridge.org/core/books/dance-to-the-tune-of-life/721483A1B5BB01E837BC8A8435E52710ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35871280ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30384641http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=19340544ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23386960http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=17951329Aastha Jain: linkedin.com/in/aasthajs and livelongerworld.com
Can we create new senses for humans? by David Eagleman Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-10-10 | This is a ~1 hour talk and then Q&A by David Eagleman (https://eagleman.sites.stanford.edu/) about augmented perception in humans and other aspects of the brain/body/technology interface.
Discussion with Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock 2 Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-10-08 | This is ~1 hour conversation with Daniel McShea (https://scholars.duke.edu/person/dmcshea) and Gunnar Babcock (gunnarbabcock.com) on topics of biology, evolution, information, causation, and ethics in the philosophy of mind.
The Bioelectric Interface to the Intelligence of the Body: the future of biomedicine Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-09-19 | This is a ~40 minute talk on the future of medicine from my perspective given remotely to students at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Unconventional Cognition Through the Lens of Cellular Collective Intelligence in Morphogenesis Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-09-19 | This is a 1 hour 8 minute talk covering topics of collective intelligence in morphogenesis as a model system for thinking about the origin and scaling of cognition in diverse embodiments.
The Bioelectric Basis of Morphogenetic Intelligence: a Roadmap for Cancer Medicine by Michael Levin Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-09-18 | This is a ~45 minute keynote talk at the Bioelectricity and Cancer conference (cam.cancer.gov/research/bioelectricity_and_cancer_conference.htm) held at NIH in September 2024.
The Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: a model system for basal cognition by Michael Levin Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-09-17 | This is a ~1 hour talk on morphogenesis as a collective intelligence and some specifics about cognitive glue.
Discussion w/ Kevin MItchell, Nick Cheney, & Ben Hartl on evolution, development, generative models Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-09-14 | This is a ~1 hour discussion with Kevin Mitchell (kjmitchell.com), Nick Cheney (https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/nick-cheney), and Ben Hartl (https://allencenter.tufts.edu/benedikt-hartl-ph-d/) on the application of connectionist generative models in understanding the role of the genome in evolution and the control of form and function. Links to relevant materials mentioned in the discussion:Nick and Kevin's recent paper preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2407.15908Kevin's recent book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691226231/free-agents?srsltid=AfmBOorWozwAsuTtM1bnIa3xe1XVUWQShSWpkIVRMf1Z-6dNUarBhWqULevin lab papers on this topic: mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/6/481, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00018-023-04790-z , and http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/13/124/20160555.abstractYuri Alon's lab: https://www.weizmann.ac.il/mcb/alon/Andreas Wagner: sites.google.com/view/evo-wagnerFernando Rosas: scholar.google.com/citations?user=OZNAs2wAAAAJ&hl=enA few papers mentioned on the topic of evolution over agential materials: mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/1/131 , mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/7/532 , aeon.co/essays/how-evolution-hacked-its-way-to-intelligence-from-the-bottom-up
Aastha Jain Simes & I interview Mustafa Djamgoz, foundational contributor to cancer bioelectricity Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-09-06 | This is another episode in our series on the great figures in developmental bioelectricity. We interview (~1 hour) Mustafa Djamgoz, who has made pivotal discoveries about the role of bioelectricity in the problem of cancer and its eventual solution.Mustafa's book: goodreads.com/book/show/17612801-beat-cancerMustafa's papers: profiles.imperial.ac.uk/m.djamgoz/publicationsMustafa and I are co-editors of the new journal Bioelectricity: home.liebertpub.com/publications/bioelectricity/647
Conversation 1 with Alex Schmidt and Alexey Tolchinsky Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-30 | This is a ~1 hour discussion with Dr. Alex Schmidt (www.schmidtpsychologicalservices.com) and Alexey Tolchinsky, Psy.D. (montgomerycountypsychologist.com/). We touch on issues of trauma, somatic memory, dissociation, and protective mechanisms at the interface of the psychiatry and developmental biology.In private practice, Dr. Schmidt works with children and adults who exhibit severe and lasting emotional and physical trauma and who present with assorted presentations of PTSD. She has treated both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence since 2010, conducts comprehensive sexual risk assessments for the courts, and offers expert witness testimony as needed. She supervises clinicians at an outpatient treatment center for adjudicated sex offenders, with a combined secondary caseload of approximately 500 clients. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Dr. Schmidt offered a somatically-based treatment program for adolescent offenders at a California Youth Authority detention center, based on a new modality she is developing to target and treat traumatic injury at its’ source. She also offered tools to participants for management and care of their own mental and physical well-being while incarcerated, specifically designed to address the considerable negative effects of incarceration. She is a vocal and committed advocate for dramatic reform of California's jail and prison systems. Dr. Tolchinsky is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University. He is a clinical fellow of the Neuropsychoanalysis Association. He runs a private practice in psychotherapy, where he specializes in dysregulated anxiety, panic, and trauma treatment. He works with neurodiverse patients and young adults struggling with life transitions. His peer-reviewed work includes papers on acute trauma, integration of chaos theory in psychotherapy, narrative fallacy in psychotherapy, and OCD. He is currently working on a paper about dissociative experiences.
Discussion with Richard Watson and Josh Bongard #2 Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-26 | This is a ~1 hour discussion with Richard Watson (richardawatson.com) and Josh Bongard (https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/josh_bongard) touching on topics of agency, polycomputing, oscillations, and evolution.
The Timescale Dynamics of Epilepsies: from seconds to decades by Christophe Bernard Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-21 | This is a ~1 hour 20 minute talk + Q&A about the neuroscience of epilepsy by Christophe Bernard (https://ins-amu.fr/physionet).
Conversation between Josh Bongard, Tom Froese, and I on Irruption Theory, Polycomputing, and minds. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-16 | This is a ~1 hour conversation between Josh Bongard (https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/josh_bongard), Tom Froese (oist.jp/research/tom-froese), and I on Irruption theory, polycomputing, and the mind-body relationship. Some relevant links from the discussion:Tom's paper on irruption theory: mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/4/288Josh and I on polycomputaton: mdpi.com/2313-7673/8/1/110Eduardo's paper on multiple embodiment: scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=KWCQjl0AAAAJ&citation_for_view=KWCQjl0AAAAJ:9yKSN-GCB0IC
Conversation between Josh Bongard, Atoosa Parsa, Richard Watson, and I Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-13 | This is a ~50 minute conversation between Josh Bongard (https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/josh_bongard), Atoosa Parsa (atoosaparsa.com), Richard Watson (richardawatson.com), and I on topics of agency, computation, polycomputing, oscillations, selfhood, and similar subjects.
Discussion with Tim Jackson, Karl Friston, and Chris Fields Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-08 | This is a ~1 hour conversation between Tim Jackson (researchgate.net/profile/Timothy-Jackson-4), Karl Friston (fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~karl), Chris Fields (chrisfieldsresearch.com) and I around the free energy principle, philosophy, evolution, and novelty.
An Active Inference Model of Collective Intelligence by R. Kaufman, P. Gupta, and J. Taylor Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-07 | This is a ~30 minute talk by Rafael Kaufmann, Pranav Gupta, and Jacob Taylor. There is a 30 minute Q&A here: https://thoughtforms.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QA-from-Gupta-Kaufman-Taylor.mp3 ; the paper referred to is: mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/7/830 Some more relevant links:drive.google.com/file/d/1bX5GK3rZX8RdgmcvXyfpOGEVYbIePMq8/view?usp=sharinghttps://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-sdgs-will-need-action-bonding-and-ritual-lessons-from-collective-intelligence/
The Mind of the Body: A Window into Embodiment and our Future Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-03 | "Metaphysics and the Matter with Things: Thinking with Iain McGilchrist was a collaborative conference put on by the Center for Process Studies (CPS) and the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in March of 2024. This three-day conference brought leading process thinkers across various disciplines, including physics, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and theology into critical dialogue with McGilchrist’s work in a collegial effort to assess, question, extend, and apply it. For more information on the conference and to purchase recordings, please visit ctr4process.org/mcgilchrist-conference"
Discussion with Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock 1 Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-02 | This is ~1 hour conversation with Daniel McShea (https://scholars.duke.edu/person/dmcshea) and Gunnar Babcock (gunnarbabcock.com) on topics of biology, evolution, causation, explanation, and the machine metaphor.
Neuroexistentialism, Improvisational Research, and Slow Partying by Joseph Dumit Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-08-02 | This is ~35 minute talk by Joseph Dumit on some very diverse topics, including Warren McCulloch's work, improvisational science, and the lichen lifestyle. The links to papers he referenced and audio of the Q&A session are here: https://thoughtforms.life/a-few-talks-discussions-links-and-qas/
Prices as Cognitive glue by Benjamin Lyons Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-29 | This is a ~25 minute talk and another ~25 minutes of discussion between Benjamin Lyons (benjaminflyons.com) and myself, about his work to understand the commonalities between economics and collective intelligence in biology. Some links mentioned in the discussion:interestingessays.substack.com/p/prices-as-memoriespapers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4878765frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02688/abstractmdpi.com/1422-0067/24/1/285cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(21)00099-7https://direct.mit.edu/artl/article/20/2/183/2768/The-Cognitive-Domain-of-a-Glider-in-the-Game-ofcisek.org/pavel
Discussion with Stuart Kauffman and Katherine Peil Kauffman 2 Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-28 | This is a ~1 hour-long discussion meeting with Stuart Kauffman and Katherine Peil Kauffman, covering evolution, machines, metaphors in science, etc.
To See a World in a Grain of Sand by Atoosa Parsa Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-27 | This is a ~1 hour talk plus ~30 minutes of Q&A discussion with Atoosa Parsa (atoosaparsa.com) on her fascinating work on polycomputing.
Discussion with Ricard Sole Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-23 | This is a ~45 minute discussion with Ricard Sole (http://complex.upf.edu/ricard-sol%C3%A9), a synthetic biologist whose work spans evolution, language, and many other fascinating areas.
Natural Language as a Cognitive Computation on Data-compressed grounded symbols by Douglas Brash Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-16 | This is a ~1 hour talk on linguistics and computation by Douglas Brash (https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/douglas-brash/, scholar.google.com/citations?user=QHCv7ZIAAAAJ&hl=en).
KAN: Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks by Ziming Liu Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-09 | This is a ~1 hour talk about KAN networks, machine learning, physics, and scientific discovery by Ziming Liu of MIT (kindxiaoming.github.io/).
The Origins of agency, cognition, and consciousness by Francis Heylighen and Shima Beigi Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-07-06 | This is a ~1 hour talk by Francis Heylighen (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html) given at our Center.
Economics, deep learning, and basal cognition Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-06-25 | This is a ~45 min discussion with Benjamin Lyons (linkedin.com/in/benjamin-lyons-ab46717a) and David Bloomin (daveey.github.io) on topics at the intersection of economics, basal cognition, and deep learning.
Aastha Jain Simes & I interview Ken Robinson, a great figure in developmental Bioelectricity. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-06-10 | This is the second of our series of discussions with key figures in the field of Bioelectricity. Ken Robinson has a long list of accomplishments in this field, covering the role of electric fields in guiding cell migration and more generally the function of electrogenic epithelia in embryogenesis. This is about a ~1 hour conversation in which he talks about his background, the history of the field, and his time in Lionel Jaffe's lab.The papers we talked about:http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/133/9/1657pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12372302The list of bioelectricity references Ken refers to can now be downloaded at the bottom of this blog post: https://thoughtforms.life/my-reference-lists-whole-endnote-library-and-bibliography-on-bioelectromagnetics/ Aastha Jain Simes: aasthajs.com and livelongerworld.com
Conversation between Donald Hoffman and Richard Watson, #2 Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-06-06 | Don Hoffman, Richard Watson, and I discuss the nature of scientific theories, time, and the physics of cognition. ~1 hour
Conversation between Joscha Bach, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-06-06 | This is an ~1 hour conversation with Joscha Bach (http://bach.ai) and Chris Fields (chrisfieldsresearch.com), touching on computation, cognition, error correcting codes, physics, AI, consciousness, etc.
Structural Coupling: how living systems construct their umwelt by Juan-Carlos Letelier Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-29 | This is a ~20 minute chalk-talk by Juan-Carlos Letelier (scholar.google.com/citations?user=J1zts-cAAAAJ&hl=en), a professor a the Universidad de Chile, at the intersection of neuroscience and the work of Francisco Varela on the foundations of biology.
Exploring Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality by Nam Hai Le, from University of Southampton. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-26 | This is a ~30 minute talk given in our Center by Nam Hai Le (scholar.google.com/citations?user=waKh7a8AAAAJ&hl=en), a post-doc with Richard Watson (richardawatson.com), with whom we collaborate on issues at the intersection of evolution and cognition. Nam presents some very cool data from his Artificial Life simulation, of emergent larger-scale individuals.
Discussion on Mortal Computations with Alexander Ororbia, Karl Friston, and Chris Fields Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-25 | This is a 1-hour working meeting discussing Alexander Ororbia's and Karl Friston's paper on Mortal Computations and their relevance to our work in reprogramming biology and cognition more generally. A few papers:Alexander and Karl's paper: arxiv.org/abs/2311.09589Michael Levin's paper to which they referred a couple of times: osf.io/preprints/osf/4b2wj
Tom Froese and Michael Levin discuss Toms Irruption theory Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-24 | This is a meeting discussion, ~40 minutes, between Tom Froese (Cognitive Scientist at OIST, groups.oist.jp/ecsu/tom-froese) and Michael Levin, going over Tom's recent paper on Irruption theory and discussing embodied minds, agency, and models of mind-body interaction. The paper is here: mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/4/288
Heterogeneity Extends Criticality Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-23 | A talk by Carlos Gershenson (of SUNY Binghampton), ~42 minutes long, given in our Center.
Biorobotics: engineering with agential materials Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-05-05 | This is an ~1 hour talk by Michael Levin on the topic of engineering with agential (living) materials, given for the students and other members of the ETHZ Zurich Soft Robotics Lab led by Prof. Robert Katzschmann).
Where Minds Come From: the scaling of collective intelligence, and what it means for AI and you Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-26 | This is a ~45 minute talk I gave to some undergraduate students about ideas from biology that might help them think about AI and related topics.
Aastha Jain Simes & I interview Min Zhao, a leader in the role of bioelectricity in wound healing Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-25 | This is the second of several interviews we will do with significant contributors to the field of developmental bioelectricity. Min Zhao's work focused on the role of ion currents and applied electric fields in cell migration and wound repair.scholar.google.com/citations?user=G7-zWBcAAAAJ&hl=enhttps://health.ucdavis.edu/dermatology/faculty/zhao.htmlAastha Jain: livelongerworld.com
A conversation with Alison Hanson on cognitive science and her trajectory in neurobiology. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-21 | This is a 1-hour conversation with Ali Hanson (braininitiative.nih.gov/ali-hanson-md-phd) on her path in science, including a ~45 minute presentation of her data in Hydra. This is the first of a series of videos I will do to highlight some exceptional junior scientists' work.More information will be provided on a blog post on Ali's work at thoughtforms.org
Cyber Animism by Joscha Bach Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-20 | This is a 1 hour 45 minute talk by Joscha Bach (http://bach.ai) given in our Center.
What can worms and frogs teach us about collective intelligence? Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-10 | This is a talk I gave at a large tech company for non-specialists interested in the intersection of computation, biology, and fundamental questions about Selfhood. It's about 48 minutes long and unfortunately does not capture my cursor movement so you can't see the things on the slides at which I am pointing.
Agency at the Very Bottom Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-09 | This is a talk by Benjamin Lyons (~1 hour) on agency within mathematics.
The Mortal Computation Thesis by Alexander Ororbia Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-06 | This is a ~1 hour talk by Alexander Ororbia (https://www.cs.rit.edu/~ago/) from the Neural Adaptive Computing (NAC) Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The related paper is here: arxiv.org/abs/2311.09589
Aastha Jain Simes & I interview Richard Nuccitelli, a great figure in developmental Bioelectricity. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-03 | This is the first of several interviews we will do with significant people in the history of developmental bioelectricity. Richard Nuccitelli is a legend, having invented (with Lionel Jaffe, in 1974) the Vibrating Probe - a technique that allowed the non-invasive sensing of ion currents around living tissues. This is about a ~1 hour conversation in which he talks about his background, the history of the field, and his current clinical work on the bioelectrics of cancer.Richard Nuccitelli: scholar.google.com/citations?user=2JirSrEAAAAJ&hl=en and linkedin.com/in/nuccitelliAastha Jain: linkedin.com/in/aasthajs and livelongerworld.com
Cristi Stoica on the Relativity of Computation. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-04-01 | This is a ~1 hour talk By Cristi Stoica (and very brief commentary by me) on the topic of the Relativity of Computation.Cristi's info:Link to paper: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/22880/Link to source code: github.com/CristinelStoica/Partition-all-at-onceORCID: orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-2765-1562Youtube channel: youtube.com/@UnbabelScience, My papers that relate to this topic (mostly arguing that the relativity Cristi points out for computing is prevalent in biology as well):mdpi.com/2313-7673/8/1/110/htmosf.io/preprints/osf/4b2wj
Conversation between Donald Hoffman and Richard Watson, #1 Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-03-28 | This is a ~1.5 hour discussion between cognitive scientist Don Hoffman (https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/HoffmanPubs.html) and evolutionary biologist/computer scientist Richard Watson (richardawatson.com), on evolution, physics, time, and the nature of reality.
A discussion between John Vervaeke, Gregg Henriques, Justin McSweeny, and Mike Levin. Michael Levins Academic Content 2024-03-16 | This is a ~1 hour 20 minute working meeting conversation between John Vervaeke, Gregg Henriques, Justin McSweeny, and myself; we touch on topics of mind, Selfhood, Platonic spaces, and other ways in which the emerging science of Diverse Intelligence speaks to greater transpersonal issues.
