This is a ~53 minute talk + 14 minute Q&A titled "On Biological and Artificial Consciousness: a case for biological computationalism" by Borjan Milinkovic ( and Jaan Aru (

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Speaker background and research

(03:16) Motivation and philosophical landscape

(09:32) Von Neumann architecture

(15:39) Computational metaphor in neuroscience

(22:52) Metabolic constraints in neurons

(29:04) Heterarchy and scale integration

(33:55) Empirical scale integration findings

(38:00) Hybrid computation in dendrites

(43:16) Field-based neural computation

(47:48) Implications for synthetic consciousness

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SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hours 44 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Hypothesis (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/).

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Platonic forms and interaction

(07:01) Xenobots and evolutionary cost

(11:23) Symbiosis, rectifiers, embeddings

(18:06) Free lunches in biology

(27:59) Topology of competency space

(39:53) Exploration, play, affordances

(48:01) Markov blankets and evolution

(57:51) Relational life and observers

(01:04:10) Defining play and plasticity

(01:20:35) Thermodynamics and domesticated play

(01:29:32) Will to live dynamics

PRODUCED BY:

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SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~54 minute conversation with Darren Iammarino (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=YNrxRaYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works) about open problems with respect to the Platonic Space model.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Patterns, minds, and causation

(09:18) Interfaces and positive pressure

(21:50) Randomness and new universals

(31:21) Quantum randomness and scale

(39:16) Cyborg minds and identity

(50:18) Unconventional minds and substrates

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~57 minute talk titled "The Bioelectric Interface to the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: development, regeneration, cancer, and beyond" which I gave at a UCSF seminar for an audience of graduate students and post-docs in Biophysics, Bioinformatics, and Chemical Biology. I covered the role of bioelectricity as cognitive glue underlying high-level adaptive plasticity in living tissue, recent progress in exploiting that interface, and new developments in research platforms for this field.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Framing bioelectricity's role

(09:28) Morphogenesis as goal-directed

(22:45) Bioelectric control of form

(35:10) Rewriting anatomical set points

(43:55) Cancer and aging bioelectricity

(49:36) AI, anthrobots, and outlook

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour 40 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Hypothesis (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/)

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Math, identity and realms

(16:08) Convergence, abstraction and attractors

(34:05) Attractors, stress and observers

(41:29) Realms, impossibility and simulation

(51:40) Simulation, explanation and understanding

(01:04:39) Mind everywhere and agency

(01:19:19) Content, communication and creativity

(01:30:42) Boundaries, scale and space

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour conversation with (including a short talk by) Mijail Serruya (https://research.jefferson.edu/labs/researcher/serruya-research.html), Alessandro Napoli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-napoli-8383a164/), and Wes Clawson (https://allencenter.tufts.edu/wesley-clawson-staff-scientist/). We talk about brain-body-machine interfaces, the clinical aspects and the deeper conceptual connections.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Introductions and BCI vision

(16:32) Platypus-inspired brain augmentation

(24:28) Plasticity, aging, and models

(39:37) Self-organizing neural interfaces

(49:58) Hypnosis, regeneration, and BCIs

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a discussion with with Lisa Feldman Barrett (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WF5c0_8AAAAJ&hl=en), Benjamin Lyons (https://interestingessays.substack.com/), Eli Sennesh (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3z4ALYgAAAAJ), Jordan Theriault-Brown (http://www.jordan-theriault.com/), and Karen Quigley (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aZ3qhVUAAAAJ&hl=en) about topics related to allostasis and top-down control across cognitive science and developmental biology.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Framing interdisciplinary synthesis

(03:18) Bioelectric collective intelligence

(16:00) Constraints versus bioelectric memory

(20:06) Neurodevelopment and allostasis

(27:10) Plasticity and dirty genomes

(35:59) Relational structure and constraints

(40:24) Agency across biological scales

(45:04) Goal-like molecular networks

(48:49) Allostasis and control hierarchies

PRODUCED BY:

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SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~50 minute video on evolution from the perspective of diverse intelligence. I discuss 3 main things: the nature of the mapping between genotype and phenotype (an intelligent, problem-solving process that interprets genomic prompts, not simply a complex mechanical mapping), the implications for evolution of operating over such a multi-scale agential material, and a few recent findings about the origin of the intelligence spiral taking place before differential replication dynamics kick in.

Editing by https://x.com/DNAMediaEditing

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Framing evolution and intelligence

(06:26) Morphogenesis as collective intelligence

(12:06) Regeneration and downward causation

(16:10) Bioelectric patterning and memory

(21:05) Reprogrammable adaptive anatomies

(26:06) Interpretation, plasticity and evolution

(31:58) Competent matter and evolvability

(35:45) Novel beings and emergence

(41:54) Prebiotic learning and agency

(46:43) Mind beyond life

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

SOCIAL LINKS:

Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5

Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org