Thoughtforms Life

By Michael LevinScience Education

Thoughtforms Life episodes

February 12, 2025Conversation with Richard Watson and Leo Caves
This is a ~1.5 hour conversation with Richard Watson (https://www.richardawatson.com/) and Leo Caves (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leo-Caves, https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=Oov_zsoAAAAJ&hl=en) about issues of resonance, unconventional cognition, observers, process philosophy, etc.
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1 hr 30 min
February 09, 2025A Conversation with Mark Solms on Life and Mind
This is a ~2-hour Q&A with Mark Solms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Solms) at the "Public conversation about their work and its implications for psychoanalysis" series of the Annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
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1 hr 55 min
February 09, 2025A Conversation With Mark Solms on Life and Mind
This is a ~2-hour Q&A with Mark Solms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Solms) at the "Public conversation about their work and its implications for psychoanalysis" series of the Annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
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1 hr 55 min
February 07, 2025Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak
This is a ~1 hour conversation between Alexey Tolchinsky (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/alexey-tolchinsky-psyd ), 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, about issues of collective minds, psychiatry, and cognition. ...
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56 min
February 06, 2025Discussion with Robert Prentner and Timothy Jackson
This is a ~1 hour 10 minute discussion with Robert Prentner (https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=ZYcFVxoAAAAJ&hl=en) and Timothy Jackson (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vOnot8oAAAAJ&hl=en) about Platonism and related concepts. The paper of mine that they reference at some point is: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5g2xj_v3; also an interesting email exchange between them on this topic is here: https://thoughtforms.life/platonism-process-philosophy-and-more-tim-jackson-and-rober...
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1 hr 10 min
February 05, 2025Conversation with Buck Trible on His Work on Static Allometry of Ant Castes and Emergent Cognition
This is a ~1 hour conversation with Buck Trible (https://triblelab.fas.harvard.edu/people/waring-buck-trible, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JLN0AT0AAAAJ&hl=en) about his fascinating work on the genetics, morphology, behavior, and sociality in ants.
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1 hr 3 min
January 30, 2025Unconventional Biology, Minimal Models of Intelligence, and Bio-Inspired Computing
This is a 1 hour 10 minute presentation of ideas around the architecture of biology (and how it differs from today's computational systems). Focusing on morphogenesis as a model of collective intelligence, I talk about the intelligence ratchet that results from life's need to creatively interpret information on the cognitive, developmental, and evolutionary scale. I end with some speculative ideas about Platonic space and cognitive patterns therein, which radically enlarge the set of beings.
Th...
CHAPTERS:
(00:00) Introduction: Body, Mind Symmetry
(05:00) Diverse Biological Intelligence Examples
(12:50) Multi-Scale Competency Architecture
(19:00) Collective Morphospace Intelligence
(24:00) Bioelectric Communication Interface
(29:30) Rewriting Anatomical Memories
(38:00) Selfhood and Collective Goals
(46:00) Unreliable Substrate, Creative Problem-Solving
(55:30) Exploring Novel Forms, Patterns
(01:06:30) Summary and Future Research
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1 hr 11 min
January 18, 2025Neuroscience Beyond Neurons: How Somatic Bioelectricity Implements an Unconventional Intelligence
This is a ~1 hr10min talk I gave at a conference on modeling aspects of neuroscience. The talk is about the inverse idea - how tools and concepts from neuroscience apply far beyond neurons and brains, and can help understand a lot of biology across development, evolution, and diverse intelligence. I talked about what the symmetry between cognitive science and the study of morphogenesis means for biomedicine and for some questions in behavioral/cognitive science.
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1 hr 9 min
December 20, 2024Conversation 1 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin
This is a ~1 hour conversation on topics of consciousness, AI, causation, affect, evolution, and philosophy between Gunnar Babcock (https://cals.cornell.edu/gunnar-babcock), Daniel McShea (https://scholars.duke.edu/person/dmcshea), Mark Solms (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ&hl=en), and I.
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1 hr 2 min
December 20, 2024Conversation Between Aaron Sloman, Anthony Leggett, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin
This is a ~1 hour talk with Aaron Sloman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Sloman), Anthony Leggett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_James_Leggett), and Chris Fields (https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/). The links to which Aaron refers are:
https://cogaffarchive.org/misc/whatlife.html
https://cogaffarchive.org/evol-devol.html
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1 hr 5 min

About Thoughtforms Life

From the publisher's feed

A podcast by Professor Michael Levin exploring the frontiers of biology, cognition, and emergence. Engage in conversations about morphogenesis, bioelectricity, and synthetic life — and uncover how…