Thoughtforms Life Biological and Technological Information Processing: Commonalities, Differences and Implications
Feb 21, 2025
Michael Levin, a biologist and director of the Levin Lab, delves into the intriguing parallels and distinctions between biological and technological information-processing systems. He explores astonishing biological intelligence, like how planarians retain memories through regeneration and how tadpoles reorganize their anatomy. Levin highlights the role of bioelectricity in development and the implications for AI and ethics, questioning our assumptions about autonomy and intelligence in both nature and technology. He also discusses the creativity of biology in problem-solving and the unexpected behaviors emerging from simple systems.
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Minds Emerge From Development
- Michael Levin links embryonic self-organization to cognition, arguing minds emerge from developmental processes.
- Understanding development is crucial to explaining how minds arise and function.
Functional Eyes On Tadpole Tails
- Levin describes experiments where eyes were induced on tadpole tails and formed functional optic structures.
- These ectopic eyes supported visual learning despite not connecting to the normal brain tectum.
Regrowing Brains That Remember
- Levin recounts planaria that are trained, decapitated, and later regrow brains that resume prior learned behavior.
- Memory information transfers into the regenerating brain as it forms and resumes behavior.