Thoughtforms Life

This is an ~8 minute very quick introduction about the context for developmental bioelectricity and some examples of how we use it as an interface to control growth and form. In this very short 3 slide introduction at a discussion forum, I tried to explain that bioelectricity is not just more physics we need to keep track of in morphogenesis, nor is it about applying external fields to have effect...

This is a very brief (~5 minute) explanation I made at a conference on next generation biomedicine about the topic of physiological learning and reprogrammability. I was commenting on the fact that differences in patient responses to interventions are not only due to genetics and epigenetics, but also to the memories made by cells and tissues of past experiences (which will differ greatly across p...

This is a ~52-minute talk titled "The Biology of Apparent Selves: Bioengineering Model Systems for the Contemplative Sciences" that I have at the CSCSC 25 (Complex Systems and Contemplative Studies Conference) symposium ( https://luma.com/3vyrtz4j?utm_source=ep-g2M2JDmWHB). CHAPTERS: (00:01) Embodied Minds And TAME (03:30) Beyond Human-Centric Minds (11:36) From Chemistry To Selves (18:49) Bioelec...

This is a ~48 minute discussion between Alexey Tolchinsky ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tiBKmrsAAAAJ&hl=en), Patricia Silveira ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VexSZ40AAAAJ&hl=en), and me on the topic of molecular markers of trauma and how to extend ideas about the psychology of trauma to minimal models of cognition such as Xenobots and Anthrobots. CHAPTERS: (00:00...

This is a ~58 minute talk titled "The Embodied Mind of a New Robot Scientist: symmetries between AI and bioengineering the agential material of life and their impact on technology and on our future" which I gave as a closing Keynote to the ALIFE conference in Japan ( https://2025.alife.org/). This is a different talk than any I've done before, in that besides going over the remarkable capacities o...

This is a ~22 minute talk that I gave remotely at the Tech For Impact Summit 2025 in Japan ( https://tech4impactsummit.com/). It goes very quickly over the idea of bioelectricity as the cognitive glue between different scales of intelligence at the body, allowing top-down control and transduction of high-level goals down to the chemistry. I discuss the idea of agential materials, the goals of nove...

This is a ~54 minute talk I gave, titled ""Bioelectricity: a bridge between physics and cognition, by way of biology", at the National Institute of Health Interest Group "Quantum SIG" (https://oir.nih.gov/sigs/qis-quantum-sensing-biology-interest-group). My talk doesn't contain any quantum biology content per se, but I discuss the idea of top-down control and cognition all the way down, from abstr...

This is a ~1 hour talk I gave at the Oxford Robotics Institute called "Intrinsic motivation in evolved, engineered, and hybrid systems: the interface of biophysics, computer science, and behavioral science". It covers our work from the perspective of motivations - what are they (in various unconventional agents, spaces, and scales), how can we predict/change them, and where they "come from". CONNE...

This is a a ~1 hour discussion between Elliot Murphy ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4AYNRj0AAAAJ&hl=en) and me on the topic of language, evolution, neuroscience, and language models. Elliot's paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17588928.2025.2523875 CHAPTERS: (00:00) Neural Basis Of Syntax (19:00) Signatures Of Structured Grammar (30:11) Origins Of Grammatical Stru...

This is a conversation between Chris Fields ( https://allencenter.tufts.edu/our-team/christopher-a-chris-fields-ph-d/), Julian Gough ( https://theeggandtherock.com/), and me about the theory of selection on the scale of universes and analogies to biology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Evolutionary Cosmology Overview (10:03) Universe Heredity And Environment (20:10) Universe As Organism (30:58) Fermi Paradox A...

This is a discussion between Jordi Vallverdú ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y_Q8AQkAAAAJ&hl=en) and me, around the topic of transferring information from the minds of embodied humans into LLM AI's, and natural, biological analogs of this process (moving cognitive patterns across embodiments). The paper Jordi was referring to: https://journals.bilpubgroup.com/index.php/fls/article/...

This is a ~1 hour interview by Aastha Jain Simes ( https://www.livelongerworld.com/) and I of leading cancer researcher Robert Gatenby ( https://www.moffitt.org/inspiring-stories/dr.-gatenbys-story). Bob talks about the evolutionary and physiology approach to understanding cancer. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Evolutionary Hallmarks of Cancer (12:02) Cooperation Stress Bioelectricity (22:23) Information Therm...

This is a ~36 minute talk by Janet Wiles ( https://about.uq.edu.au/experts/13) "Mapping Diverse Intelligence Spaces: looking for xenobots in computational models of memory and language", followed by a ~24 minute discussion of her work on the intersection of cognitive science, language, robotics, and computer science, and some of our work on evolution and synthetic bioengineering. Slides kindly pro...

This is a 1 hour 11 minute talk by me called "Against Mind-Blindness: recognizing and communicating with Agential Materials and Beyond". It is a slightly longer, updated version of this talk from last month, containing a bit of new material and a somewhat differently-ordered presentation. CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

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 motivates this unconventional way to look at biology, a...

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 Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Bl...

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 ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify...

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 YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The L...

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 Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

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 Lab

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 Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

"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 Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog...

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 examples and new discoveries that this framework allowed...

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 Lab

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 Lab