Thoughtforms Life

This is a ~57 minute discussion with Elan Barenholtz ( https://mpcrlab.com/people/Elan-Barenholtz/) about language and its possible autonomy in brains, AI models, and other systems linking to our lab's work on active data and the thoughts-thinkers continuum. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Language As Auto-Generator (21:14) Virtual Governors In Physiology (30:37) Mathematics, Metaphysics, Free Lunches (40:40) L...

This is a ~52 minute discussion between Diana Moga ( https://www.dianamogamd.com/), Alexey Tolchinsky ( https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/), Chris Fields ( https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/), and I on topics related to autism, ketamine-assisted therapy, and the linking of these concepts to somatic biology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Ketamine, Trauma, Defining Autism (06:12) Trauma, Gender, Autism Mod...

This is a ~1 hour 5 minute conversation between Nora Belrose ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p_oBc64AAAAJ&hl=en) and me on the topics of consciousness, AI, and different views of the Platonic Space. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introductions and Moral Risks (09:11) Intelligence, Sentience, Irreversibility (16:38) Digital Copies and Value (24:54) Dynamic Platonic Mindspace (35:19) Passable For...

This is a ~1 hour conversation between Alexey Tolchinsky ( https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/), a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, Center for Professional Psychology, and Thomas Pollak ( https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-0810), a neuropsychiatrist and researcher working at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's Colle...

This is a ~1 hour 5 minute working conversation with Chris Fields ( https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/), Mark Solms ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ&hl=en), Karl Friston ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q_4u0aoAAAAJ&hl=en), and Thomas Pollak ( https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pollak) starting on the topic of variable degrees of introspection in natural a...

This is a ~35 min talk titled "Entropic motivation and the roots of agency" by Alex Kiefer ( https://philpeople.org/profiles/alex-kiefer) + ~25 min discussion of the issues of motivation in artificial and natural agents. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Entropy, Motivation, Psychophysical Identity (35:45) Willpower, Purpose, Buddhist Motivation (45:57) Emergent Goals and Uncertainty (58:06) Platonic Patterns and...

This is a ~45 minute talk for an embodied cognition audience, covering my framework for diverse intelligence, our use of morphogenesis as a model system for communicating with unconventional minds, and my views on our new MomBot platform and how it helps understand the symmetries between science and agency, and the novel group minds consisting of technology, living matter, and scientists themselve...

This is a brief (~17 minute) introduction to my argument about Platonic space in biology, using a 1-page simplified argument format and then a quick overview of the research program entailed by it. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Mathematical facts and patterns (01:46) Math explains physical reality (04:28) Physicalism and Platonic space (06:17) Structured space of patterns (07:31) Beyond mathematics, agential...

This ~50 minute talk given at a futurism/AI gathering is a variant of my recent talks on diverse intelligence, focusing on ways to expand our perspective via considerations of non-brain-based intelligence in the body, patterns as agents, synthetic beings as model systems for learning to predict and communicate with agents that do not share our selection history, pattern of form and behavior from t...

This is a ~1 hour discussion with Ben Lyons ( https://interestingessays.substack.com/), Eli Sennesh ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3z4ALYgAAAAJ&hl=en), and Jordan Theriault ( http://www.jordan-theriault.com/), where they each give talks and then we have a brief Q&A on topics related to neuroscience, economics, and specifically the interoception and allostasis view of behaviora...

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...