Thoughtforms Life

This is a ~1 hours 44 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Hypothesis (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/). CHAPTERS: (00:00) Platonic forms and interaction (07:01) Xenobots and evolutionary cost (11:23) Symbiosis, rectifiers, embeddings (18:06) Free lunches in biology (27:59) Topology of competency space (39:53) Exploration, play, affordances (48:01) Markov blankets and evolution (57:51) Relational life and observers (01:04:10) Defining play and plasticity (01:20:35) Thermodynamics and domesticated play (01:29:32) Will to live dynamics PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~54 minute conversation with Darren Iammarino (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=YNrxRaYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works) about open problems with respect to the Platonic Space model. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Patterns, minds, and causation (09:18) Interfaces and positive pressure (21:50) Randomness and new universals (31:21) Quantum randomness and scale (39:16) Cyborg minds and identity (50:18) Unconventional minds and substrates PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~57 minute talk titled "The Bioelectric Interface to the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: development, regeneration, cancer, and beyond" which I gave at a UCSF seminar for an audience of graduate students and post-docs in Biophysics, Bioinformatics, and Chemical Biology. I covered the role of bioelectricity as cognitive glue underlying high-level adaptive plasticity in living tissue, recent progress in exploiting that interface, and new developments in research platforms for this field. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Framing bioelectricity's role (09:28) Morphogenesis as goal-directed (22:45) Bioelectric control of form (35:10) Rewriting anatomical set points (43:55) Cancer and aging bioelectricity (49:36) AI, anthrobots, and outlook PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour 40 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Hypothesis (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/) CHAPTERS: (00:00) Math, identity and realms (16:08) Convergence, abstraction and attractors (34:05) Attractors, stress and observers (41:29) Realms, impossibility and simulation (51:40) Simulation, explanation and understanding (01:04:39) Mind everywhere and agency (01:19:19) Content, communication and creativity (01:30:42) Boundaries, scale and space PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour conversation with (including a short talk by) Mijail Serruya (https://research.jefferson.edu/labs/researcher/serruya-research.html), Alessandro Napoli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-napoli-8383a164/), and Wes Clawson (https://allencenter.tufts.edu/wesley-clawson-staff-scientist/). We talk about brain-body-machine interfaces, the clinical aspects and the deeper conceptual connections. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introductions and BCI vision (16:32) Platypus-inspired brain augmentation (24:28) Plasticity, aging, and models (39:37) Self-organizing neural interfaces (49:58) Hypnosis, regeneration, and BCIs PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a discussion with with Lisa Feldman Barrett (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WF5c0_8AAAAJ&hl=en), Benjamin Lyons (https://interestingessays.substack.com/), Eli Sennesh (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3z4ALYgAAAAJ), Jordan Theriault-Brown (http://www.jordan-theriault.com/), and Karen Quigley (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aZ3qhVUAAAAJ&hl=en) about topics related to allostasis and top-down control across cognitive science and developmental biology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Framing interdisciplinary synthesis (03:18) Bioelectric collective intelligence (16:00) Constraints versus bioelectric memory (20:06) Neurodevelopment and allostasis (27:10) Plasticity and dirty genomes (35:59) Relational structure and constraints (40:24) Agency across biological scales (45:04) Goal-like molecular networks (48:49) Allostasis and control hierarchies PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~50 minute video on evolution from the perspective of diverse intelligence. I discuss 3 main things: the nature of the mapping between genotype and phenotype (an intelligent, problem-solving process that interprets genomic prompts, not simply a complex mechanical mapping), the implications for evolution of operating over such a multi-scale agential material, and a few recent findings about the origin of the intelligence spiral taking place before differential replication dynamics kick in. Editing by https://x.com/DNAMediaEditing CHAPTERS: (00:00) Framing evolution and intelligence (06:26) Morphogenesis as collective intelligence (12:06) Regeneration and downward causation (16:10) Bioelectric patterning and memory (21:05) Reprogrammable adaptive anatomies (26:06) Interpretation, plasticity and evolution (31:58) Competent matter and evolvability (35:45) Novel beings and emergence (41:54) Prebiotic learning and agency (46:43) Mind beyond life PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~46 minute talk by Michael Levin titled “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Behavioral Sciences in Developmental Biology and Biomedicine” given at a developmental biology/bioengineering symposium, explaining the connections between the cognitive/behavioral sciences and the study of morphogenesis, from the lens of our framework and new technology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Behavioral Science Foundations (05:57) Agential Cells And Morphospace (10:47) Goal Directed Regeneration Examples (18:16) Bioelectric Pattern Memories (23:32) Exploring Morphological Plasticity (31:54) Learning Regeneration And Cancer (36:10) Novel Bioengineered Living Machines (41:22) Future Minds And Ethics PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~54 minute conversation with Katrina Schleisman (https://www.galois.com/team/katrina-schleisman) and David Burke (https://www.galois.com/team/david-burke) about issues related to memory, Platonism, diverse intelligence, and similar topics. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Paper comments and impetus (01:38) Math-physics causal dualism (06:19) Unreasonable effectiveness and foundations (12:54) Active Platonic patterns learning (19:36) Verbs, affordances, pattern agency (29:04) Math gifts before evolution (35:43) Cognition, life, and idealism (43:21) Hidden messages and memory (47:42) Resonant patterns, chance, synchronicity PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~52 minute conversation with philosopher David Resnik (https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/bioethicist) about the Platonic Space model and our plan for a new paper about a different variant of it than what I've been writing so far. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Morphogenesis and latent space (15:19) Platonism's scientific utility (27:06) Explanation, models, morphospace (36:51) Models, journals, writing (43:33) Mathematical patterns in evolution PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~57 minute discussion with Elan Barenholtz (https://mpcrlab.com/people/Elan-Barenholtz/) about language and its possible autonomy in brains, AI models, and other systems linking to our lab's work on active data and the thoughts-thinkers continuum. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Language As Auto-Generator (21:14) Virtual Governors In Physiology (30:37) Mathematics, Metaphysics, Free Lunches (40:40) Language Models As Evidence (49:46) Minimal Systems, Language Criteria PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~52 minute discussion between Diana Moga (https://www.dianamogamd.com/), Alexey Tolchinsky (https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/), Chris Fields (https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/), and I on topics related to autism, ketamine-assisted therapy, and the linking of these concepts to somatic biology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Ketamine, Trauma, Defining Autism (06:12) Trauma, Gender, Autism Models (13:14) Autistic Phenomenological Patterns (19:23) Autism Neurotypical Continuum Traits (24:15) Assessments, Attention, Social Trauma (31:25) Opposite Minds, Hyperplasticity (38:21) Experiments, Translation, Environments (44:51) Dimensionality and Collective Behavior PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour 5 minute conversation between Nora Belrose (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p_oBc64AAAAJ&hl=en) and me on the topics of consciousness, AI, and different views of the Platonic Space. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introductions and Moral Risks (09:11) Intelligence, Sentience, Irreversibility (16:38) Digital Copies and Value (24:54) Dynamic Platonic Mindspace (35:19) Passable Forms, Cosmic Memory (44:06) Changing Forms, Light Cones (55:00) LLMs, Goals, Simulation PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour conversation between Alexey Tolchinsky (https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/), a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, Center for Professional Psychology, and Thomas Pollak (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-0810), a neuropsychiatrist and researcher working at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. We discussed the implications of rejuvenation therapies for cognition and some strategies for upcoming experiments on Anthrobots. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Rejuvenation, memory, wisdom (14:07) Cancer and tissue resilience (20:17) Brainwashing, suggestion, belief (27:24) Placebo, xenobots, resilience (34:46) Patient anthrobot models (45:45) Psychiatric phenotypes in cells (52:24) Cryogenic reset and organoids PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour 5 minute working conversation with Chris Fields (https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/), Mark Solms (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ&hl=en), Karl Friston (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q_4u0aoAAAAJ&hl=en), and Thomas Pollak (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pollak) starting on the topic of variable degrees of introspection in natural and synthetic agents, and how that looks from the active inference framework, and moves into related topics of application of cognitive plasticity to regenerative biology. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Optimal introspection in agents (12:56) Consciousness, feeling, clinical introspection (24:44) Controlling preferences and desires (35:19) Modifying prior preferences therapeutically (42:04) Regeneration, biodomes, cellular priors (52:46) Life missions and pathology (59:08) Reboots, psychedelics, guided plasticity PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~35 min talk titled "Entropic motivation and the roots of agency" by Alex Kiefer (https://philpeople.org/profiles/alex-kiefer) + ~25 min discussion of the issues of motivation in artificial and natural agents. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Entropy, Motivation, Psychophysical Identity (35:45) Willpower, Purpose, Buddhist Motivation (45:57) Emergent Goals and Uncertainty (58:06) Platonic Patterns and Wrap-up PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~45 minute talk for an embodied cognition audience, covering my framework for diverse intelligence, our use of morphogenesis as a model system for communicating with unconventional minds, and my views on our new MomBot platform and how it helps understand the symmetries between science and agency, and the novel group minds consisting of technology, living matter, and scientists themselves. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Framing Novel Beings (04:56) Developmental Mind Continuum (09:40) Memory Beyond Brains (15:08) Cells Navigating Morphospace (18:13) Cognitive Light Cones (22:38) Bioelectric Communication Interface (29:51) Xenobots and Anthrobots (35:45) MomBot Embodied AI (42:47) Applications and Ethical Futures PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a brief (~17 minute) introduction to my argument about Platonic space in biology, using a 1-page simplified argument format and then a quick overview of the research program entailed by it. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Mathematical facts and patterns (01:46) Math explains physical reality (04:28) Physicalism and Platonic space (06:17) Structured space of patterns (07:31) Beyond mathematics, agential patterns (10:00) Rehabilitating scientific dualism (11:08) Nonbiological hosts for patterns (12:33) Patterns, goals, and emergence (13:44) Interfaces into Platonic space (15:07) Mind–brain equals math–physics (16:00) Practical research program outlined PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This ~50 minute talk given at a futurism/AI gathering is a variant of my recent talks on diverse intelligence, focusing on ways to expand our perspective via considerations of non-brain-based intelligence in the body, patterns as agents, synthetic beings as model systems for learning to predict and communicate with agents that do not share our selection history, pattern of form and behavior from the latent space, and more. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Expanding concepts of mind (15:13) Anatomy as cognitive space (20:13) Bioelectric communication and regeneration (26:44) Pattern agents and biobots (36:57) Mathematical latent mindspace (42:33) Platonic minds and machines PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a ~1 hour discussion with Ben Lyons (https://interestingessays.substack.com/), Eli Sennesh (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3z4ALYgAAAAJ&hl=en), and Jordan Theriault (http://www.jordan-theriault.com/), where they each give talks and then we have a brief Q&A on topics related to neuroscience, economics, and specifically the interoception and allostasis view of behavioral and psychological processes. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introductions and Framing (04:10) Allostasis and Interoception (17:21) Prediction Categories Metabolism (35:50) Control-Oriented Brain Theory (48:31) Evolutionary Regulation Discussion PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin Blog: https://thoughtforms.life The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org