The Principle of Least Action

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The principle of least action is a powerful concept in biology. It's about how much effort does it take to compute something, i think is really important. And the question is going to be, to what extent is your system persuadable? You have things like cuckoo clocks which are not persuadable and you have to physically change the hardware. But then there are systems on the right side of that spectrum, such as humans or other advanced cognitive systems. There are all kinds of agents we don't even know exist yet but they could revolutionize our lives. We're better off with stimuli than taking vantage points from inside them.

As a semi-outsider, it’s fun for me to watch as a new era dawns in biology: one that adds ideas from physics, big data, computer science, and information theory to the usual biological toolkit. One of the big areas of study in this burgeoning field is the relationship between the basic bioinformatic building blocks (genes and proteins) to the macroscopic organism that eventually results. That relationship is not a simple one, as we’re discovering. Standard metaphors notwithstanding, an organism is not a machine based on genetic blueprints. I talk with biologist and information scientist Michael Levin about how information and physical constraints come together to make organisms and selves.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Michael Levin received his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Vannevar Bush Chair in the Biology department at Tufts University, and serves as director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. His work on left-right asymmetric body structures is on Nature’s list of 100 Milestones of Developmental Biology of the Century.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.