Thoughtforms Life

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

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Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is a very brief (~5 minute) explanation I made at a conference on next generation biomedicine about the topic of physiological learning and reprogrammability. I was commenting on the fact that differences in patient responses to interventions are not only due to genetics and epigenetics, but also to the memories made by cells and tissues of past experiences (which will differ greatly across patients). Any molecular pathway shown in textbooks and papers won't function the same way in each individual because many of them can store dynamical system memories of past history and act differently in the future. The comment has no visuals to it, so I simply added some movies of our 2-headed planarian flatworms (originally recorded by Junji Morokuma in my lab) and then some nice ocean videos I shot at sunrise. The worms are a nice example: their bioelectric state was reprogrammed by a brief intervention (physiological experience) and now they forever make 2-headed regenerative (asexual) progeny despite having totally normal genetics.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Patient-Specific Cellular Memories

(02:16) Cellular Goal-Directed Growth

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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

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Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin

Blog: https://thoughtforms.life

The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org

This is an ~8 minute very quick introduction about the context for developmental bioelectricity and some examples of how we use it as an interface to control growth and form. In this very short 3 slide introduction at a discussion forum, I tried to explain that bioelectricity is not just more physics we need to keep track of in morphogenesis, nor is it about applying external fields to have effects on cells. It's important in the body, and for biomedicine, for the exact same reason it's important in the brain: because it's the natural medium in which the collective intelligence of cell groups operates, and thus it's a great interface for deploying top-down, high-level interventions: it makes the living material reprogrammable in software, without having to edit DNA. By collaborating with the agential material of life (re-writing its setpoint memories, etc.) we can reach very complex outcomes that are too hard to micromanage from the molecular level. The context is cognition, not physics, with the payoff being the same kind of advance in biosciences as we've had in the move from having to work on computers at the hardware level (1950's) to being able to work in high-level languages or even prompts.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Axolotl top-down regeneration

(01:32) Bioelectric patterning and eyes

(03:27) Cancer as bioelectric failure

(05:02) Controlling cancer with bioelectricity

(06:24) Repairing genetic brain defects

(07:45) Limb regeneration via electroceuticals

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 talk titled "The Biology of Apparent Selves:

Bioengineering Model Systems for the Contemplative Sciences" that I have at the CSCSC 25 (Complex Systems and Contemplative Studies Conference) symposium (https://luma.com/3vyrtz4j?utm_source=ep-g2M2JDmWHB).

CHAPTERS:

(00:01) Embodied Minds And TAME

(03:30) Beyond Human-Centric Minds

(11:36) From Chemistry To Selves

(18:49) Bioelectric Goals And Regeneration

(24:36) Metamorphosis Memory And Self

(30:38) Biological Plasticity And Goals

(34:14) Xenobots And Anthrobots

(39:41) Platonic Patterns And Minds

(48:55) Magic Beyond Life Machines

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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 ~48 minute discussion between Alexey Tolchinsky (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tiBKmrsAAAAJ&hl=en), Patricia Silveira (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VexSZ40AAAAJ&hl=en), and me on the topic of molecular markers of trauma and how to extend ideas about the psychology of trauma to minimal models of cognition such as Xenobots and Anthrobots.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Early adversity and EPGS

(07:02) Trauma biomarkers and networks

(15:29) Designing anthrobot validation experiments

(19:42) Xenobots, rodents, and trauma

(27:10) Optimal developmental stress window

(33:41) Too little stress question

(41:49) Uncertainty, self-models, and play

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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 ~58 minute talk titled "The Embodied Mind of a New Robot Scientist: symmetries between AI and bioengineering the agential material of life and their impact on technology and on our future" which I gave as a closing Keynote to the ALIFE conference in Japan (https://2025.alife.org/). This is a different talk than any I've done before, in that besides going over the remarkable capacities of living material, I discuss 1) the symmetries between how all agents navigate their world and how science discoveries are made, and 2) a new robot scientist platform that we have created. With respect to the latter, I discuss how the body and mind of this new embodied AI can serve as a translation and integration layer between human scientists and living matter such as the cells which make up Xenobots.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Introduction and framework

(10:11) Towards anatomical compiler

(20:16) Anatomical intelligence and bioelectricity

(29:10) Rewriting morphological goals

(36:08) Xenobots and anthrobots

(45:02) MomBot robotic scientist

(51:24) Future directions and thanks

PRODUCED BY:

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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 ~22 minute talk that I gave remotely at the Tech For Impact Summit 2025 in Japan (https://tech4impactsummit.com/). It goes very quickly over the idea of bioelectricity as the cognitive glue between different scales of intelligence at the body, allowing top-down control and transduction of high-level goals down to the chemistry. I discuss the idea of agential materials, the goals of novel beings, and the implications for the future of biomedicine and beyond.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Mind Body Bioelectric Bridge

(02:33) Agential Cells, Competent Matter

(04:55) Regeneration And Global Goals

(08:11) Decoding Embryonic Bioelectric Patterns

(11:34) Rewriting Bodily Pattern Memories

(14:04) Bioelectric Repatterning And Regeneration

(16:31) Anthrobots And Platonic Possibilities

(20:11) Future Biomedicine 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

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