Evolutionarily the Most Adaptive Way of Being

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Humans are arguably the first species that have invented the fear of death. So not like instinctual, but starting to contemplate the finiteness of life. If you're a goldfish and you have a 10 minute attention span, all of your goals are potentially achievable because you're probably going to live the next 10 minutes or whatever goals you have - they are totally achievable. But if you're a human, you could have all kinds of goals that are guaranteed not achievable because they just take too long Like guaranteed you're not going to achieve them.

Michael Levin is a biologist at Tufts University working on novel ways to understand and control complex pattern formation in biological systems. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– Henson Shaving: https://hensonshaving.com/lex and use code LEX to get 100 free blades with your razor
– Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings
– LMNT: https://drinkLMNT.com/lex to get free sample pack
– InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off

EPISODE LINKS:
Michael’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/drmichaellevin
Michael’s Website: https://drmichaellevin.org
Michael’s Papers:
Biological Robots: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.00880
Synthetic Organisms: https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19420889.2021.2005863
Limb Regeneration: https://science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj2164

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips

SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman

OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:40) – Embryogenesis
(14:08) – Xenobots: biological robots
(27:55) – Sense of self
(37:27) – Multi-scale competency architecture
(48:58) – Free will
(58:27) – Bioelectricity
(1:11:44) – Planaria
(1:23:33) – Building xenobots
(1:47:08) – Unconventional cognition
(2:11:39) – Origin of evolution
(2:18:42) – Synthetic organisms
(2:25:27) – Regenerative medicine
(2:29:14) – Cancer suppression
(2:33:15) – Viruses
(2:38:28) – Cognitive light cones
(2:43:03) – Advice for young people
(2:47:47) – Death
(2:57:17) – Meaning of life