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Legendary actor and mental health advocate Glenn Close is on a quest to change how we think about mental health, starting with her decision to speak out about her own family's struggles — a brave choice considering the stigma that pervades the topic. This week, we're revisiting this sweeping conversation with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, where Close shares the inspiration behind the advocacy group she founded to combat the crisis, underscoring the transformative power of community and the critical need for comprehensive mental health care systems. Want to help shape TED’s shows going forward? Fill out our survey ! Become a TED Member today at ted.com/join Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…
Content provided by Professor Michael Levin and Michael Levin. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Professor Michael Levin and Michael Levin or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
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.
Content provided by Professor Michael Levin and Michael Levin. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Professor Michael Levin and Michael Levin or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
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.
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 Glue (15:50) Communicating Cell Intelligence (22:30) Patterns Beyond Physics (25:00) Anthrobots: Novel Life Forms (27:30) Future Beings, Pattern Space (32:30) Conclusion and Thanks CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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) Agential Material: Cell Competency (08:00) Intelligence Below Cells (09:00) Multiscale Competency Architecture (10:00) Anatomical Alignment Problem (12:30) Bioelectricity: Cognitive Glue (13:30) Scaling Goals: Light Cone (14:30) Salamander Regeneration Example (15:30) Tadpole Eye on Tail (17:00) Bioelectrical Interface Methods (18:00) Rewriting Body Memory (19:00) Frog Limb Regeneration (20:30) Plasticity: Novel Organisms (21:30) Anthrobots from Human Cells (23:00) Future of Viable Agents (24:00) Synthbiosis: Recognizing Minds (25:00) Credits and Thanks CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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 YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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: (00:00) Talk Overview and Structure (01:30) Expanding Our View of Mind (04:30) Biology's Multi-Scale Architecture (09:00) Bioelectricity: Ancient Cognitive Glue (14:00) Biology Solves Novel Problems (22:00) Creative Interpretation, Intelligence Ratchet (29:30) Novel Goals, Platonic Space (36:00) Conclusion and Future Research CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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 work that takes advantage of the bioelectric interface to re-specify the targets of morphogenesis. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Agential Material for Bioengineering (02:00) The Anatomical Compiler Goal (04:00) Biology as Agential Material (06:00) Intelligence Below Cell Level (09:00) Anatomy Not Just DNA (12:00) Hardware vs Software Biology (14:00) Cellular Collective Intelligence Examples (18:00) Creative Problem-Solving in Cells (22:00) Cognitive Glue and Goal-Seeking (25:00) Bioelectricity: Ancient Communication (28:00) Reading and Writing Patterns (30:00) Rewriting Collective Cell Memory (33:00) Regenerating Limbs in Frogs (35:00) Planaria Pattern Memory (39:00) Plasticity Beyond Species (41:00) Novel Shapes and Galls (44:00) Computational Models for Repair (49:00) Cancer as Goal Failure (50:00) Bioelectric Cancer Suppression (53:00) Novel Anatomical Goals: Xenobots (01:00:00) Human Anthrobots from Cells (01:02:00) Autonomous Personalized Therapeutics (01:04:00) Top-Down Biomedical Approaches (01:06:00) Biorobotics and Bioprompting (01:07:00) Ethics of Diverse Beings CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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 ~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 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 ~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. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Diverse Intelligence and Goals (02:30) Beyond Discrete Natural Kinds (06:00) Framework for Diverse Intelligences (11:00) Scaling Minds, Collective Intelligence (15:30) Self-Creation of Bodies, Minds (18:30) Anatomical Order, Compiler Vision (21:30) Agential Material, Problem Solving (26:30) Bioelectricity as Cognitive Glue (31:00) Communicating with Collective Intelligence (34:30) Regenerating Limbs, Healing Wounds (37:30) Synthetic Life: Xenobots, Anthropods (42:30) Interoperability, Novel Agents (45:30) Humility, Patterns in Media (49:30) Conclusion: Expanding Sentience Idea (52:30) Acknowledgements and Funders CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Diverse Intelligence Framework (12:00) Morphogenesis Problem Solving (22:00) Bioelectric Pattern Memory (34:30) Exploring Latent Space CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
This is a ~45 minute keynote talk at the Bioelectricity and Cancer conference (https://cam.cancer.gov/research/bioelectricity_and_cancer_conference.htm) held at NIH in September 2024. CHAPTERS: (00:00) What is Cancer? (13:00) Cognitive Light Cone & Cancer (18:00) Bioelectric Layer: Cognitive Glue (23:00) Bioelectricity in Cancer (28:00) Tools: Imaging & Control (32:00) Bioelectric Diagnostics & Induction (37:00) Suppressing Cancer Bioelectrically (42:00) Roadmap and Future Directions (46:00) Conclusion & Acknowledgements CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
This is a ~1 hour talk on morphogenesis as a collective intelligence and some specifics about cognitive glue. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Intro: Diverse Intelligence Overview (01:40) Discrete Kinds vs Continuum (03:50) Intelligence in Novel Spaces (06:00) Cells as Collective Intelligence (09:30) Morphogenesis and Agential Material (12:30) Defining Intelligence: Perturbations (17:00) Tadpole Metamorphosis Intelligence (19:30) Anatomical Homeostasis & Setpoints (21:30) Bioelectricity: Cognitive Glue (23:30) Ancient Bioelectric Networks (25:30) Reading Bioelectric Patterns (27:30) Manipulating Bioelectric States (30:00) Bioelectric Control of Organs (33:00) Planaria Pattern Memory (35:44) Two-Headed Worms & Memory (37:30) Exploring Anatomical Morphospace (40:00) Diverse Intelligence: Cognitive Light Cone (42:00) Cancer: Breakdown Collective Intelligence (44:00) Origin of Goals & Individuality (45:30) Mechanisms of Collective Alignment (47:00) Stress Sharing Mechanism (48:30) New Forms of Intelligence (49:30) Xenobots: Synthetic Life (53:00) Anthrobots: Human Cell Bots (54:30) Future of Diverse Intelligence (55:30) Conclusion and Acknowledgements CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
"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 mor... CHAPTERS: (00:03) Embodied Minds & Intelligence (02:00) Diverse Intelligences Framework (03:50) Origin of Agential Material (05:30) Collective Cellular Intelligence (07:36) Self Boundaries & Individuation (08:55) Bioelectricity & Body Asymmetry (10:40) Collective Problem Solving (12:00) Adapting to Changing Parts (13:30) Bioelectrical Network Minds (15:00) Reading Collective Mind (16:00) Hacking Bioelectric Memory (18:00) Rewriting Planarian Memory (20:00) Cancer as Self Failure (21:00) Somatic Psychiatry Approach (22:00) Plasticity Beyond Development (23:00) Xenobots & Anthropods (26:00) Exploring Capability Space (27:00) Conclusion & Resources CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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). CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introduction: Biorobotics & Materials (02:20) The Anatomical Compiler (04:15) Agential Materials & Competency (07:00) Biological Plasticity Examples (11:50) Navigating Anatomical Space (15:00) Beyond Molecular Medicine (17:40) Intelligence in Development (21:00) Newt Tubule Plasticity (24:00) Picasso Tadpole Experiment (27:00) Pattern Homeostasis & Setpoints (29:40) Bioelectricity as Interface (32:00) Reading Electrical Patterns (34:00) Manipulating Bioelectric Info (35:40) Bioelectric Organ Triggers (38:30) Frog Leg Regeneration (40:00) Planarian Pattern Memory (43:30) Properties of Memory (45:00) Modeling Anatomical Decisions (46:30) Head Shape Plasticity (49:00) Hacking Plant Morphogenesis (50:30) Full Stack Modeling (51:30) Cancer & Cognitive Cone (54:00) Synthetic Xenobots (57:30) Human Anthrobots (59:30) Future of Life Forms (01:03:00) Summary & Acknowledgements CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab…
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. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab
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