Thoughtforms Life

This is a ~2 hours 4 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Symposium ( CHAPTERS: (00:00) Strong anticipation analogy (08:16) Relational Platonic patterns (25:06) Finite brains, infinite grammar (40:05) Beauty and compression (51:17) Searching for grammar (01:01:58) Patterns and selfhood (01:14:44) Patterns claiming territory (01:29:28) Markets shape selves (01:43:57) Scaling collective selves (01:55:47) Testing Platonic feedback 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 5 minute discussion with Amahury Jafet Lopez Diaz ( Carlos Gershenson-Garcia ( and Richard Watson ( Stay tuned for part 2 where Amahury will present his ideas in more detail. Amahury's paper: CHAPTERS: (00:00) Common ground and stakes (06:10) Ontology of platonic space (14:50) Testing separate realms (25:52) Acid tests and metaphors (34:55) Interaction and narratives (44:20) Formal facts alternative (52:38) Experiments and surprise (01:00:29) Closing reframing proposal 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 ~1.5 hour talk + discussion, titled "A Multiscale Logic of Collective Intelligence" by Donald Hoffman ( and Chetan Prakash ( with Robert Chis-Ciure ( and Chris Fields ( and me. CHAPTERS: (00:01) Beyond space-time physics (10:10) Minimal observer participants (18:49) Recursive trace logic (35:08) Actions and trace blankets (43:45) Physics and agency together (52:32) Causal emergence and joins (59:52) Contextuality and quantum logic (01:06:00) Unitarity and positive geometries (01:16:29) Consciousness-first mind theories (01:24:39) Testing models together 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 discussion with Lisa Maroski ( and Richard Watson ( about the role of language in shaping our thinking in the field of diverse intelligence and beyond. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Language and systems thinking (04:25) Parts wholes and resonance (07:34) Who versus what (12:45) Recursion and new structures (17:47) Searching for a word (25:16) Holding multiple polarities (29:41) Nested biological agency (35:42) Patterns and Platonic minds (45:41) Cross-level observers and time (52:45) Knowing and owning beliefs 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 meeting with Richard Watson ( Alexey Tolchinsky ( Mark Solms ( and Karl Friston ( where we discuss issues of memory (especially, the role of forgetting) in diverse intelligence (human patients and beyond), and a bit on dreams and psychoanalysis. The original question from me was motivated by some findings on the effects of induced forgetting in models of unconventional cognition ( and more coming soon). CHAPTERS: (00:00) Role of forgetting (06:22) Overfitting and generalization (10:45) Accuracy minus complexity (21:13) REM sleep and transference (24:40) Choosing futures and pasts (31:18) Cellular psychotherapy ideas (34:58) Dreaming of cell phones (39:47) Photographic memory costs (44:18) Precision and future paths (52:25) Collective cellular identity 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 ~55 minute discussion following up on Nic's talk and our brief conversation ( comprising part 2 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau ( We cover topics of consciousness, neural decoding, the meaning of neuroscience, memory transfer, cognitive plasticity and its relationship to rejuvenation therapies, intelligence throughout the universe, and the weirdest work Nic has done (he chose his work on memory in Playdoh). For more information: Nic's website: X account: @DrNRouleau Recent papers to check out: Sellar, E.P., Rouleau, N. (In Review). A cybernetic framework for synthetic biological intelligence in the era of neural tissue engineering. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/md2wf_v1. Kansala, C., Cicek, E., Nkansah-Okoree, V., Golding, A., Murugan, N.J., Rouleau, N. (In Review). Superstitious conditioning forms the experience of free will under causal determinism. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/fk3yt_v2. Roskies, A. & Rouleau, N. (Forthcoming, In Press). Research on brain organoids should prioritize questions of agency, not consciousness. AJOB Neuroscience. Rouleau, N. & Levin, M. (In Press). Brains and where else? Mapping theories of consciousness to unconventional embodiments. Philosophical Transactions: A. Preprint doi:10.1098/rsta.2025.0082. Rouleau, N., Levin, M. (2024), Discussions of machine versus living intelligence need more clarity, Nature Machine Intelligence, doi:10.31219/osf.io/gz3km Rouleau, N., and Levin, M. (2023), The Multiple Realizability of Sentience in Living Systems and Beyond, eNeuro, 10(11), doi:10.1523/eneuro.0375-23.2023 Rouleau, N., Cairns, D. M., Rusk, W., Levin, M., and Kaplan, D. (2021), Learning and synaptic plasticity in 3D bioengineered neural tissues Neuroscience Letters, 750: 135799 CHAPTERS: (00:00) Rethinking unconscious experience (07:50) Immortality, memory, and aging (20:11) Regeneration, identity, and continuity (34:52) Goal signals and decoding (44:01) Conditioning strange materials (49:15) Neuroscience and cosmic minds 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 talk and discussion, comprising part 1 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau ( Nic goes over unconventional aspects of neuroscience touching on free will, cybernetics, consciousness, and a lot more. We start a discussion which is continued in part 2. For more information: Nic's website: X account: @DrNRouleau Recent papers to check out: Sellar, E.P., Rouleau, N. (In Review). A cybernetic framework for synthetic biological intelligence in the era of neural tissue engineering. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/md2wf_v1. Kansala, C., Cicek, E., Nkansah-Okoree, V., Golding, A., Murugan, N.J., Rouleau, N. (In Review). Superstitious conditioning forms the experience of free will under causal determinism. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/fk3yt_v2. Roskies, A. & Rouleau, N. (Forthcoming, In Press). Research on brain organoids should prioritize questions of agency, not consciousness. AJOB Neuroscience. Rouleau, N. & Levin, M. (In Press). Brains and where else? Mapping theories of consciousness to unconventional embodiments. Philosophical Transactions: A. Preprint doi:10.1098/rsta.2025.0082. Rouleau, N., Levin, M. (2024), Discussions of machine versus living intelligence need more clarity, Nature Machine Intelligence, doi:10.31219/osf.io/gz3km Rouleau, N., and Levin, M. (2023), The Multiple Realizability of Sentience in Living Systems and Beyond, eNeuro, 10(11), doi:10.1523/eneuro.0375-23.2023 Rouleau, N., Cairns, D. M., Rusk, W., Levin, M., and Kaplan, D. (2021), Learning and synaptic plasticity in 3D bioengineered neural tissues Neuroscience Letters, 750: 135799 CHAPTERS: (00:00) Free will, minds, transmission (26:52) Material brains after death (31:18) Defining free will experience (38:00) Long-term agency and algorithms (49:35) Causality, math, and consciousness (57:33) Transmissive consciousness and information 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 second conversation with Lisa Barrett ( Karen Quigley ( and Benjamin Lyons ( about Relational Realism, allostasis, and questions of mind/body/behavior. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Rethinking emotion universals (09:34) Brain evolution and allostasis (17:25) Predictive processing and signaling (30:05) Objectivity and first-person science (38:45) Flexible body-world boundaries (45:46) Relational meaning in perception (52:06) Embodiment, morphospace and realism 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 1hr + 23 minutes talk and conversation with Thomas Seyfried, Derek Lee and Tomás Duraj ( Juanita Mathews from my group ( about their work on the metabolic and mitochondrial aspects of cancer. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Metabolic nature of cancer (08:52) Mitochondrial theory of cancer (34:00) Metabolic therapy in practice (40:39) Mitochondria and morphogenetic fields (45:21) Ion channels and metabolism (53:01) Bioelectric control and regeneration (01:09:03) Mouse versus human models (01:15:19) Mitochondria, aging, and disease 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 ~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 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 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: 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 ~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: 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 ~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

This is a ~46 minute talk by Michael Levin titled “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Behavioral Sciences in Developmental Biology and Biomedicine” given at a developmental biology/bioengineering symposium, explaining the connections between the cognitive/behavioral sciences and the study of morphogenesis, from the lens of our framework and new technology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Behavioral Science Foundations (05:57) Agential Cells And Morphospace (10:47) Goal Directed Regeneration Examples (18:16) Bioelectric Pattern Memories (23:32) Exploring Morphological Plasticity (31:54) Learning Regeneration And Cancer (36:10) Novel Bioengineered Living Machines (41:22) Future Minds And Ethics 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 ~54 minute conversation with Katrina Schleisman (https://www.galois.com/team/katrina-schleisman) and David Burke (https://www.galois.com/team/david-burke) about issues related to memory, Platonism, diverse intelligence, and similar topics. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Paper comments and impetus (01:38) Math-physics causal dualism (06:19) Unreasonable effectiveness and foundations (12:54) Active Platonic patterns learning (19:36) Verbs, affordances, pattern agency (29:04) Math gifts before evolution (35:43) Cognition, life, and idealism (43:21) Hidden messages and memory (47:42) Resonant patterns, chance, synchronicity 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 ~52 minute conversation with philosopher David Resnik (https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/bioethicist) about the Platonic Space model and our plan for a new paper about a different variant of it than what I've been writing so far. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Morphogenesis and latent space (15:19) Platonism's scientific utility (27:06) Explanation, models, morphospace (36:51) Models, journals, writing (43:33) Mathematical patterns in evolution 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 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) Language Models As Evidence (49:46) Minimal Systems, Language Criteria 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 ~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 Models (13:14) Autistic Phenomenological Patterns (19:23) Autism Neurotypical Continuum Traits (24:15) Assessments, Attention, Social Trauma (31:25) Opposite Minds, Hyperplasticity (38:21) Experiments, Translation, Environments (44:51) Dimensionality and Collective Behavior 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 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 Forms, Cosmic Memory (44:06) Changing Forms, Light Cones (55:00) LLMs, Goals, Simulation 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 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 College London. We discussed the implications of rejuvenation therapies for cognition and some strategies for upcoming experiments on Anthrobots. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Rejuvenation, memory, wisdom (14:07) Cancer and tissue resilience (20:17) Brainwashing, suggestion, belief (27:24) Placebo, xenobots, resilience (34:46) Patient anthrobot models (45:45) Psychiatric phenotypes in cells (52:24) Cryogenic reset and organoids 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 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 and synthetic agents, and how that looks from the active inference framework, and moves into related topics of application of cognitive plasticity to regenerative biology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Optimal introspection in agents (12:56) Consciousness, feeling, clinical introspection (24:44) Controlling preferences and desires (35:19) Modifying prior preferences therapeutically (42:04) Regeneration, biodomes, cellular priors (52:46) Life missions and pathology (59:08) Reboots, psychedelics, guided plasticity 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 ~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 Wrap-up 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 ~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 themselves. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Framing Novel Beings (04:56) Developmental Mind Continuum (09:40) Memory Beyond Brains (15:08) Cells Navigating Morphospace (18:13) Cognitive Light Cones (22:38) Bioelectric Communication Interface (29:51) Xenobots and Anthrobots (35:45) MomBot Embodied AI (42:47) Applications and Ethical Futures 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 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 patterns (10:00) Rehabilitating scientific dualism (11:08) Nonbiological hosts for patterns (12:33) Patterns, goals, and emergence (13:44) Interfaces into Platonic space (15:07) Mind–brain equals math–physics (16:00) Practical research program outlined 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 ~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 the latent space, and more. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Expanding concepts of mind (15:13) Anatomy as cognitive space (20:13) Bioelectric communication and regeneration (26:44) Pattern agents and biobots (36:57) Mathematical latent mindspace (42:33) Platonic minds and machines 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 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 behavioral and psychological processes. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introductions and Framing (04:10) Allostasis and Interoception (17:21) Prediction Categories Metabolism (35:50) Control-Oriented Brain Theory (48:31) Evolutionary Regulation Discussion 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 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 patients). Any molecular pathway shown in textbooks and papers won't function the same way in each individual because many of them can store dynamical system memories of past history and act differently in the future. The comment has no visuals to it, so I simply added some movies of our 2-headed planarian flatworms (originally recorded by Junji Morokuma in my lab) and then some nice ocean videos I shot at sunrise. The worms are a nice example: their bioelectric state was reprogrammed by a brief intervention (physiological experience) and now they forever make 2-headed regenerative (asexual) progeny despite having totally normal genetics. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Patient-Specific Cellular Memories (02:16) Cellular Goal-Directed Growth 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 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 effects on cells. It's important in the body, and for biomedicine, for the exact same reason it's important in the brain: because it's the natural medium in which the collective intelligence of cell groups operates, and thus it's a great interface for deploying top-down, high-level interventions: it makes the living material reprogrammable in software, without having to edit DNA. By collaborating with the agential material of life (re-writing its setpoint memories, etc.) we can reach very complex outcomes that are too hard to micromanage from the molecular level. The context is cognition, not physics, with the payoff being the same kind of advance in biosciences as we've had in the move from having to work on computers at the hardware level (1950's) to being able to work in high-level languages or even prompts. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Axolotl top-down regeneration (01:32) Bioelectric patterning and eyes (03:27) Cancer as bioelectric failure (05:02) Controlling cancer with bioelectricity (06:24) Repairing genetic brain defects (07:45) Limb regeneration via electroceuticals 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 ~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) Bioelectric Goals And Regeneration (24:36) Metamorphosis Memory And Self (30:38) Biological Plasticity And Goals (34:14) Xenobots And Anthrobots (39:41) Platonic Patterns And Minds (48:55) Magic Beyond Life Machines 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 ~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) Early adversity and EPGS (07:02) Trauma biomarkers and networks (15:29) Designing anthrobot validation experiments (19:42) Xenobots, rodents, and trauma (27:10) Optimal developmental stress window (33:41) Too little stress question (41:49) Uncertainty, self-models, and play 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 ~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 of living material, I discuss 1) the symmetries between how all agents navigate their world and how science discoveries are made, and 2) a new robot scientist platform that we have created. With respect to the latter, I discuss how the body and mind of this new embodied AI can serve as a translation and integration layer between human scientists and living matter such as the cells which make up Xenobots. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introduction and framework (10:11) Towards anatomical compiler (20:16) Anatomical intelligence and bioelectricity (29:10) Rewriting morphological goals (36:08) Xenobots and anthrobots (45:02) MomBot robotic scientist (51:24) Future directions and thanks 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 ~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 novel beings, and the implications for the future of biomedicine and beyond. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Mind Body Bioelectric Bridge (02:33) Agential Cells, Competent Matter (04:55) Regeneration And Global Goals (08:11) Decoding Embryonic Bioelectric Patterns (11:34) Rewriting Bodily Pattern Memories (14:04) Bioelectric Repatterning And Regeneration (16:31) Anthrobots And Platonic Possibilities (20:11) Future Biomedicine And Ethics 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 ~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 abstract mental goals to molecular pathways, with bioelectricity as a tractable medium for the communicat... CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

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". CONNECT WITH ME: Podcast Website YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

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 Structure (41:39) Oscillations And Bioelectric Cognition (50:18) Free Will And Emergence 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 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 And Habitability (39:19) Water Chemistry And Exaptation (50:09) Cosmic Genome And Environment 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 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/view/8060 CHAPTERS: (00:00) Embodiment and Language Models (20:17) Caterpillars, Memories, and LLMs (27:23) AI, Science, Human Limits 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 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 Thermodynamics Morphogenesis (36:23) Cancer Information and Aging (43:04) Adaptive Therapy and Biomarkers (55:06) Habitat Imaging and Evolution 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 ~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 provided by Janet: https://thoughtforms.life/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Thoughtforms-Conversation-with-Michael-Levin-Talk-Slides-from-Janet-Wiles.pdf CHAPTERS: (00:00) Mapping developmental lineages (11:18) Memory, partitioning, language (36:46) Memory transfer dynamics (49:30) Plasticity, gradients, bioelectricity (59:30) Talking with organs 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 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, and then (at around minute 47) present a speculative model and a research program we are pursuing to test and extend these ideas in a practical way. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Patterns Across Biological Spaces (15:07) Goal-Directed Anatomical Homeostasis (25:01) Beyond Genetics and Selection (31:50) Synthetic Xenobots and Anthrobots (42:52) Platonic Patterns Versus Emergence (55:12) Physical Systems as Interfaces (01:04:50) Summary, Implications, Research Program 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 ~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 Blog The Levin Lab

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 Twitter Blog The Levin Lab

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 Levin Lab

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