Michael Levin - Making the Process-of-Life Flourish in Bio and Beyond (Stewarding the Flame, Ep 1)

This installment of the Stewarding the Flame series is an interview with Michael Levin, Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University, Director of the Allen Discovery Center, and one of the world's leading researchers in developmental biology, regeneration, bioelectricity, and collective intelligence.Michael argues that cognition may be more fundamental than biology itself. Rather than viewing life as the origin of intelligence, he suggests that life is one particularly effective way of hosting broader cognitive patterns that extend far beyond conventional biological systems.We explore what makes life, life, what humanity still needs to discover in order to better understand the "flame" of life, and how regenerative medicine and freedom of embodiment may reshape the future of intelligence and the living process.The interview is the first installment of The Trajectory's newest series, Stewarding the Flame, where we explore what intelligence is and ask what "flame" life possesses that non-life does not.This episode referred to the following other essays and resources:-- Michael Levin - Unfolding New Paradigms of Posthuman Intelligence (Worthy Successor, Episode 7): https://danfaggella.com/levin1-- Stewarding the Flame - How to Build an Ideal Future for Intelligence: https://danfaggella.com/stewarding/-- Timur Kuran, Private Truths, Public Lieshttps://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674707580-- John Vervaeke, "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis"https://johnvervaeke.com/series/awakening-from-the-meaning-crisis/-- Multi-Scale Longevity: Defeating Aging from Cells to Embodied Human Minds, and the Future of the Species - Leo Pio-Lopez & Michael Levin: https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202602.1770.v1Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZsGNYjH14 See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/levin2...About The Trajectory:AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircleStay in touch:-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw-- X: x.com/danfaggella-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai