#102 - Prof. MICHAEL LEVIN, Prof. IRINA RISH - Emergence, Intelligence, Transhumanism

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Feb 11, 2023

Guest

Irina Rish

Guest

Michael Levin

Prof. Michael Levin, a biologist at Tufts University, studies the emergence of complex life from simple beginnings. He explores how bioelectric dynamics can guide organism development. Joining him is Prof. Irina Rish from Université de Montréal, who delves into AI's evolution and its parallels with biological intelligence. Together, they discuss the nature of agency in living systems, the significance of communication among cells, and the philosophical implications of transhumanism, challenging traditional views on intelligence in both humans and machines.

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INSIGHT

Intelligence is Baked In

Intelligence isn't solely emergent, it's fundamental.
Biological systems are goal-directed agents at all scales, not just emergent outcomes.

INSIGHT

Quantifying Emergence

The debate about reducibility in complex systems has shifted from philosophy to quantifiable science.
Tools now exist to calculate which level of a system does the most work, proving higher levels' causal power.

INSIGHT

Observer-Dependent Agency

Agency and cognition are observer-dependent, not objective facts about a system.
A system's position on the agency continuum depends on the observer's model.

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Michael Levin is a Distinguished Professor in the Biology department at Tufts University, and the holder of the Vannevar Bush endowed Chair. He is the Director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. His research focuses on understanding the biophysical mechanisms of pattern regulation and harnessing endogenous bioelectric dynamics for rational control of growth and form.

The capacity to generate a complex, behaving organism from the single cell of a fertilized egg is one of the most amazing aspects of biology. Levin' lab integrates approaches from developmental biology, computer science, and cognitive science to investigate the emergence of form and function. Using biophysical and computational modeling approaches, they seek to understand the collective intelligence of cells, as they navigate physiological, transcriptional, morphognetic, and behavioral spaces. They develop conceptual frameworks for basal cognition and diverse intelligence, including synthetic organisms and AI.

Also joining us this evening is Irina Rish. Irina is a Full Professor at the Université de Montréal's Computer Science and Operations Research department, a core member of Mila - Quebec AI Institute, as well as the holder of the Canada CIFAR AI Chair and the Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Autonomous AI. She has a PhD in AI from UC Irvine. Her research focuses on machine learning, neural data analysis, neuroscience-inspired AI, continual lifelong learning, optimization algorithms, sparse modelling, probabilistic inference, dialog generation, biologically plausible reinforcement learning, and dynamical systems approaches to brain imaging analysis.

Interviewer: Dr. Tim Scarfe

TOC:

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:02:09] Emergence

[00:13:16] Scaling Laws

[00:23:12] Intelligence

[00:44:36] Transhumanism

Prof. Michael Levin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Levin_(biologist)

https://www.drmichaellevin.org/

https://twitter.com/drmichaellevin

Prof. Irina Rish

https://twitter.com/irinarish

https://irina-rish.com/