Start / Thoughtforms Life / Against mind blindness recognizing and communicating with agential materials and beyond michael levin

Against Mind-blindness: Recognizing and Communicating with Agential Materials and Beyond - Michael Levin

67 min • 22 juli 2025

This is a ~1 hour 7 minute talk I gave at the SEMF Interdisciplinary School (July 2025, https://semf.org.es/school2025/#speakers-container) on agency ways to think about expanding our ability to detect and communicate with unconventional minds. The same talk but with a lengthy Q&A will be up on the SEMF website.

CONNECT WITH ME:

Podcast Website
YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Twitter
Blog
The Levin Lab

Senaste avsnitt

Unconventional Embodiments of Consciousness: A Diverse Intelligence Research Program - Michael Levin

6 augusti | 47 min

Against Mind-blindness: Recognizing and Communicating with Agential Materials and Beyond - Michael Levin

22 juli | 67 min

Beyond Complexity & Emergence: Taming Multiscale Competency in Agential Materials

19 juli | 54 min

Engineering Agential Materials

11 juli | 27 min

Discussion with Michael Johnson

9 juli | 55 min

Unconventional Selves - a Diverse Intelligence Perspective on Consciousness by Michael Levin

7 juli | 72 min

Chemical AI: An Unconventional Strategy for Mimicking Biological Intelligence - Pier Luigi Gentili

10 juni | 58 min

Bioelectric Networks as the Interface to Somatic Intelligence: Toward a New Regenerative Medicine

6 juni | 51 min

Conversation with Benjamin Lyons, Mark Blumberg, and Karen Adolph: Motor Development and Cognition

3 juni | 36 min

Against Mind-Blindness: Recognizing and Communicating With Diverse Intelligences

15 maj | 36 min

Scaling Intelligence in Biology, Artificial Life, and Beyond

11 maj | 24 min

Culture as an Additional Scale of Biological Organisation with Ivan Kroupin and Tian Chen Zeng

7 maj | 57 min

Ethics and the New Biology

26 april | 33 min

Conversation with Frank Putnam and Alexey Tolchinsky

19 april | 57 min

Discussion with Michael Johnson

17 april | 51 min

How Does It Know? Bioelectricity as Memory Medium, Cognitive Glue, & Path to Regenerative Medicine

11 april | 60 min

Uncovering Electrodynamic Design Principles of Living Cells

8 april | 56 min

Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak

22 mars | 57 min

Conversation with Lauren Ross

21 mars | 58 min

Interview with Azra Raza on a New Theory and Practice of Cancer

14 mars | 59 min

Life, Mind, and Computing: A Diverse Intelligence Perspective

13 mars | 33 min

Cellular Automata and Models of Health and Disease

11 mars | 36 min

Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist

4 mars | 72 min

Bioelectric Networks: An Interface to Engineering with the Agential Material of Life

1 mars | 63 min

Aastha Jain Simes and I Interview Pamela Lyon

25 februari | 80 min

Discussion with Mayli Mertens on Molecular Placebos and Bioelectricity

24 februari | 30 min

Biological and Technological Information Processing: Commonalities, Differences and Implications

21 februari | 61 min

Conversation 2 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin

17 februari | 59 min

Conversation with Richard Watson and Leo Caves

12 februari | 90 min

A Conversation with Mark Solms on Life and Mind

9 februari | 115 min

Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak

7 februari | 55 min

Discussion with Robert Prentner and Timothy Jackson

6 februari | 70 min

Conversation with Buck Trible on His Work on Static Allometry of Ant Castes and Emergent Cognition

5 februari | 63 min

Unconventional Biology, Minimal Models of Intelligence, and Bio-Inspired Computing

30 januari | 70 min

Neuroscience Beyond Neurons: How Somatic Bioelectricity Implements an Unconventional Intelligence

18 januari | 68 min

Conversation 1 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin

20 december 2024 | 62 min

Conversation Between Aaron Sloman, Anthony Leggett, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

20 december 2024 | 65 min

Novel Bodies, Unconventional Minds: Diverse Intelligence and the Study of Consciousness

19 december 2024 | 81 min

Bernardo Kastrup, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin - Conversation

15 december 2024 | 82 min

Collective Intelligence of the Body: The Multiscale Architecture of Selves

14 december 2024 | 54 min

Self-Constructing Bodies, Collective Minds: The Intersection of CS, Cognitive Bio, and Philosophy

28 november 2024 | 73 min

Discussion with Martin Hanczyc: Minimal Models of Cognition and Active Matter Research

19 november 2024 | 49 min

Embodied Minds: Discovering Diverse Intelligence through the Lens of Biomedicine

14 oktober 2024 | 47 min

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Denis Noble

14 oktober 2024 | 70 min

Discussion with Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock

8 oktober 2024 | 53 min

Unconventional Cognition Through the Lens of Cellular Collective Intelligence in Morphogenesis

19 september 2024 | 68 min

The Bioelectric Interface to the Intelligence of the Body: The Future of Biomedicine

19 september 2024 | 41 min

The Bioelectric Basis of Morphogenetic Intelligence: A Roadmap for Cancer Medicine

18 september 2024 | 46 min

The Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: A Model System for Basal Cognition

17 september 2024 | 59 min

Discussion with Kevin Mitchell, Nick Cheney, and Ben Hartl on Evolution, Development, Generative Models

14 september 2024 | 58 min

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Mustafa Djamgoz, Foundational Contributor to Cancer Bioelectricity

6 september 2024 | 59 min

Conversation 1 with Alex Schmidt and Alexey Tolchinsky

30 augusti 2024 | 61 min

Discussion with Richard Watson and Josh Bongard

26 augusti 2024 | 65 min

Conversation between Josh Bongard, Tom Froese, and I on Irruption Theory, Polycomputing, and Minds

16 augusti 2024 | 57 min

Conversation Between Josh Bongard, Atoosa Parsa, Richard Watson, and I

13 augusti 2024 | 52 min

Discussion With Tim Jackson, Karl Friston, and Chris Fields

8 augusti 2024 | 58 min

An Active Inference Model of Collective Intelligence by R. Kaufman, P. Gupta, and J. Taylor

7 augusti 2024 | 30 min

The Mind of the Body: A Window into Embodiment and Our Future

3 augusti 2024 | 28 min

Discussion with Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock

2 augusti 2024 | 54 min

Prices as Cognitive Glue by Benjamin Lyons

29 juli 2024 | 53 min

Discussion with Stuart Kauffman and Katherine Peil Kauffman

28 juli 2024 | 55 min

Discussion with Ricard Sole

23 juli 2024 | 50 min

Economics, Deep Learning, and Basal Cognition

25 juni 2024 | 47 min

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Ken Robinson, a Great Figure in Developmental Bioelectricity

10 juni 2024 | 62 min

Conversation between Donald Hoffman and Richard Watson

6 juni 2024 | 60 min

Conversation between Joscha Bach, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

6 juni 2024 | 62 min

Discussion on Mortal Computations with Alexander Ororbia, Karl Friston, and Chris Fields

25 maj 2024 | 59 min

Tom Froese and Michael Levin Discuss Tom's Irruption Theory

24 maj 2024 | 47 min

Discussion with Michael Pollan of New Ideas on Memories and Selves

9 maj 2024 | 79 min

Biorobotics: Engineering with Agential Materials

5 maj 2024 | 56 min

Where Minds Come From: The Scaling of Collective Intelligence, and What It Means for AI and You

26 april 2024 | 55 min

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Min Zhao, a Leader in the Role of Bioelectricity in Wound Healing

25 april 2024 | 57 min

A Conversation with Alison Hanson on Cognitive Science and Her Trajectory in Neurobiology

21 april 2024 | 57 min

What Can Worms and Frogs Teach Us About Collective Intelligence?

10 april 2024 | 48 min

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Richard Nuccitelli, a Great Figure in Developmental Bioelectricity

3 april 2024 | 63 min

Conversation between Donald Hoffman and Richard Watson

28 mars 2024 | 84 min

A Discussion Between John Vervaeke, Gregg Henriques, Justin McSweeny, and Mike Levin

16 mars 2024 | 81 min

Bioelectric Networks Underlie the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis

15 mars 2024 | 49 min

Associative Memory in Hopfield Networks Designed to Solve Propositional Satisfiability Problems

5 mars 2024 | 49 min

Timothy Jackson and Mike Levin, Meeting

24 februari 2024 | 52 min

Karl Friston, Adam Goldstein, and Michael Levin Discuss Active Inference and Algorithms

4 februari 2024 | 54 min

Mark Solms and Michael Levin Discuss Explicit and Implicit Behavioral Drives

3 februari 2024 | 55 min

Discussion with Stuart Kauffman and Katherine Peil Kauffman

7 januari 2024 | 62 min

Bioelectricity, Biobots, and the Future of Biology

25 november 2023 | 30 min

Bioelectricity as Cognitive Glue: From Diverse Intelligence to Regenerative Medicine (~1 hour talk)

21 november 2023 | 76 min

Conversation between Adam Omary, Roy Baumeister, and Michael Levin

7 november 2023 | 63 min

A 1 hour Lecture on Bioelectricity for a Department of Parasitology/Immunology by Michael Levin

5 november 2023 | 59 min

Conversation #2 Between Chris Fields, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin

31 oktober 2023 | 57 min

Bioelectricity as the Software of Life: From Cognitive Glue to Regenerative Medicine

13 oktober 2023 | 57 min

Neuroscience Beyond Neurons: Bioelectricity Underlies the Collective Intelligence of Cellular Swarms

6 oktober 2023 | 65 min

Bioelectric Networks as the Interface to Somatic Intelligence for Regenerative Medicine

29 september 2023 | 51 min

Conversation with Mark Solms and Chris Fields

1 september 2023 | 56 min

Bioelectrical Signals Reveal, Induce, and Normalize Cancer

15 augusti 2023 | 52 min

Conversation with Chris Fields and Richard Watson

12 juni 2023 | 70 min

Conversation With Richard Watson, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin

5 juni 2023 | 58 min

Conversation Between Richard Watson, Iain McGilchrist, and Michael Levin

3 juni 2023 | 61 min

My Talk on Consciousness at the Science of Consciousness 2023

31 maj 2023 | 34 min

Iain McGilchrist, Richard Watson, and Mile Levin

30 maj 2023 | 59 min

Conversation #1 between Richard Watson, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin

16 maj 2023 | 58 min

Conversation #1 between Chris Fields, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin

11 maj 2023 | 62 min

Conversation between Mark Solms, Chris Fields, and Mike Levin

4 maj 2023 | 56 min

Conversation between Mark Solms, Chris Fields, and Mike Levin

4 maj 2023 | 56 min

Understanding the Collective Intelligence of Cells

1 maj 2023 | 74 min

Talk for Robosoft 2023

21 april 2023 | 46 min

Working Meeting #1 with Mike Gazzaniga and Richard Watson

18 april 2023 | 74 min

Chat with Carlos E. Perez about the TAME Framework: Intelligence and Agency

15 april 2023 | 40 min

Iain McGilchrist, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin

12 april 2023 | 60 min

Conversation Between Richard Watson, Iain McGilchrist, and Michael Levin

2 april 2023 | 61 min

Conversation Between Mark Solms, Chris Fields, and Mike Levin

22 mars 2023 | 58 min

Conversation between Douglas Brash, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

10 mars 2023 | 52 min

Conversation between Douglas Brash, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

10 mars 2023 | 52 min

Conversation Between Richard Watson, Iain McGilchrist, and Michael Levin

20 februari 2023 | 58 min

Conversation Between Richard Watson, Iain McGilchrist, and Michael Levin

20 februari 2023 | 58 min

Engineering with Agential Materials: From Evolution to Biological Robotics, via Bioelectricity

16 februari 2023 | 60 min

Beyond the Brain: Multiscale Diverse Intelligence as Biological Inspiration for AI

14 februari 2023 | 64 min

Bioelectric Networks Underlie the Intelligence of the Body

5 februari 2023 | 63 min

Diverse Intelligence

28 januari 2023 | 81 min

Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist

27 januari 2023 | 57 min

Discussion: Chris Fields, Mark Solms, Michael Levin

27 januari 2023 | 57 min

Conversation between Douglas Brash, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

27 januari 2023 | 72 min

Discussion: Chris Fields, Mark Solms, Michael Levin

27 januari 2023 | 57 min

Conversation between Douglas Brash, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

27 januari 2023 | 72 min

Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist

27 januari 2023 | 57 min

Michael Levin Talk on Bioelectricity at Stanford Chemical Engineering Colloquium

27 januari 2023 | 56 min

1 Hour TAME Talk

27 december 2021 | 70 min

Developmental Bioelectricity as a Precursor to Neurobiology

9 november 2021 | 50 min

At the Intersection of AI & Developmental Biology: Intelligence Beyond the Brain

29 september 2021 | 64 min

Cancer Talk by Michael Levin (2021)

17 september 2021 | 45 min

Tame

5 augusti 2021 | 70 min

Against Mind-blindness: Recognizing and Communicating with Agential Materials and Beyond - Michael Levin

Senaste avsnitt

Unconventional Embodiments of Consciousness: A Diverse Intelligence Research Program - Michael Levin

Against Mind-blindness: Recognizing and Communicating with Agential Materials and Beyond - Michael Levin

Beyond Complexity & Emergence: Taming Multiscale Competency in Agential Materials

Engineering Agential Materials

Discussion with Michael Johnson

Unconventional Selves - a Diverse Intelligence Perspective on Consciousness by Michael Levin

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense without Teleology

Discussion with Murray Shanahan

Discussion between Adam Safron, Max Shen, and Michael Levin

Discussion with David Spivak

Endogenous Bioelectrical Networks: An Interface to Somatic Intelligence

Against Mind-Blindness

Chemical AI: An Unconventional Strategy for Mimicking Biological Intelligence - Pier Luigi Gentili

Bioelectric Networks as the Interface to Somatic Intelligence: Toward a New Regenerative Medicine

Conversation with Benjamin Lyons, Mark Blumberg, and Karen Adolph: Motor Development and Cognition

Against Mind-Blindness: Recognizing and Communicating With Diverse Intelligences

Scaling Intelligence in Biology, Artificial Life, and Beyond

Culture as an Additional Scale of Biological Organisation with Ivan Kroupin and Tian Chen Zeng

Ethics and the New Biology

Conversation with Frank Putnam and Alexey Tolchinsky

Discussion with Michael Johnson

How Does It Know? Bioelectricity as Memory Medium, Cognitive Glue, & Path to Regenerative Medicine

Uncovering Electrodynamic Design Principles of Living Cells

Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak

Conversation with Lauren Ross

Interview with Azra Raza on a New Theory and Practice of Cancer

Life, Mind, and Computing: A Diverse Intelligence Perspective

Cellular Automata and Models of Health and Disease

Conversation of Michael Levin with Iain McGilchrist

Bioelectric Networks: An Interface to Engineering with the Agential Material of Life

Aastha Jain Simes and I Interview Pamela Lyon

Discussion with Mayli Mertens on Molecular Placebos and Bioelectricity

Biological and Technological Information Processing: Commonalities, Differences and Implications

Conversation 2 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin

Conversation with Richard Watson and Leo Caves

A Conversation with Mark Solms on Life and Mind

Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak

Discussion with Robert Prentner and Timothy Jackson

Conversation with Buck Trible on His Work on Static Allometry of Ant Castes and Emergent Cognition

Unconventional Biology, Minimal Models of Intelligence, and Bio-Inspired Computing

Neuroscience Beyond Neurons: How Somatic Bioelectricity Implements an Unconventional Intelligence

Conversation 1 Between Gunnar Babcock, Daniel McShea, Mark Solms, and Michael Levin

Conversation Between Aaron Sloman, Anthony Leggett, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

Novel Bodies, Unconventional Minds: Diverse Intelligence and the Study of Consciousness

Bernardo Kastrup, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin - Conversation

Collective Intelligence of the Body: The Multiscale Architecture of Selves

Self-Constructing Bodies, Collective Minds: The Intersection of CS, Cognitive Bio, and Philosophy

Discussion with Martin Hanczyc: Minimal Models of Cognition and Active Matter Research

Embodied Minds: Discovering Diverse Intelligence through the Lens of Biomedicine

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Denis Noble

Discussion with Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock

Unconventional Cognition Through the Lens of Cellular Collective Intelligence in Morphogenesis

The Bioelectric Interface to the Intelligence of the Body: The Future of Biomedicine

The Bioelectric Basis of Morphogenetic Intelligence: A Roadmap for Cancer Medicine

The Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: A Model System for Basal Cognition

Discussion with Kevin Mitchell, Nick Cheney, and Ben Hartl on Evolution, Development, Generative Models

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Mustafa Djamgoz, Foundational Contributor to Cancer Bioelectricity

Conversation 1 with Alex Schmidt and Alexey Tolchinsky

Discussion with Richard Watson and Josh Bongard

Conversation between Josh Bongard, Tom Froese, and I on Irruption Theory, Polycomputing, and Minds

Conversation Between Josh Bongard, Atoosa Parsa, Richard Watson, and I

Discussion With Tim Jackson, Karl Friston, and Chris Fields

An Active Inference Model of Collective Intelligence by R. Kaufman, P. Gupta, and J. Taylor

The Mind of the Body: A Window into Embodiment and Our Future

Discussion with Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock

Prices as Cognitive Glue by Benjamin Lyons

Discussion with Stuart Kauffman and Katherine Peil Kauffman

Discussion with Ricard Sole

Economics, Deep Learning, and Basal Cognition

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Ken Robinson, a Great Figure in Developmental Bioelectricity

Conversation between Donald Hoffman and Richard Watson

Conversation between Joscha Bach, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin

Discussion on Mortal Computations with Alexander Ororbia, Karl Friston, and Chris Fields

Tom Froese and Michael Levin Discuss Tom's Irruption Theory

Discussion with Michael Pollan of New Ideas on Memories and Selves

Biorobotics: Engineering with Agential Materials

Where Minds Come From: The Scaling of Collective Intelligence, and What It Means for AI and You

Aastha Jain Simes & I Interview Min Zhao, a Leader in the Role of Bioelectricity in Wound Healing