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Dr. J. Scott Turner is a physiologist who has contributed extensively to our understanding of collective intelligence through his work on the behavior of mound building termites. Early in his career he realized that the the textbook explanation for the mounds - that they contributed to temperature regulation of the underlying colony - were woefully incomplete. Through his work, Turner was able to demonstrate that the mounds were actually an integral part of the physiological success of the termites - rather than being a temperature regulating mechanism, the mounds acted as an external lung that was built and maintained by the colony for the express purposes of air filtration and circulation. Downstream of this realization, Turner developed a theory that suggests Darwinism alone - in context of survival of the fittest as the sole driver of the diversity of life - was an incomplete representation of the dynamics of life. We talk about the details of how to rewrite Darwin with a greater emphasis on epigenetics, collective intelligence, and the innate drive of purpose that is particular to life.
(00:00:00)
Go!
(00:00:17)
The man behind the termites
(00:01:44)
Remaining mysteries of evolutionary theory
(00:06:01)
When things don't add up
(00:12:47)
The ingenuity of termite mounds
(00:25:11)
Biology as a PID controller
(00:29:56)
Desire can't emerge from genes alone
(00:35:54)
Origins of Life
(00:38:09)
Origin of Life vs Origin of Cells
(00:43:31)
The struggle to exist is an inherent part of life
(00:49:36)
Crystal structure of life
(00:57:29)
Organisms are defined through communion & community
(01:16:21)
Our function in the superorganism
(01:23:19)
A teleology of life?
(01:28:50)
Recursive degradation of information
(01:38:43)
Purpose and desire as fundamental grounds of biology
(01:57:39)
Searching for gold on the fringe
(02:07:28)
The endless churn of ideas
(02:20:19)
Stand ins for superstitious forces
(02:29:01)
Willful intelligence of superorganisms
(02:32:18)
Tuning the algorithm that turns rocks into life
(02:36:50)
Closing thoughts
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PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities.
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The DemystifySci Podcast