Lex Fridman Podcast: #325 – Michael Levin: Biology, Life, Aliens, Evolution, Embryogenesis & Xenobots

Lex Fridman Lex Fridman 10/1/22 - Episode Page

Michael Levin is a biologist at Tufts University working on novel ways to understand and control complex pattern formation in biological systems. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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EPISODE LINKS:

Michael’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/drmichaellevin

Michael’s Website: https://drmichaellevin.org

Michael’s Papers:

Biological Robots: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.00880

Synthetic Organisms: https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19420889.2021.2005863

Limb Regeneration: https://science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj2164

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OUTLINE:

Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) – Introduction

(06:40) – Embryogenesis

(14:08) – Xenobots: biological robots

(27:55) – Sense of self

(37:27) – Multi-scale competency architecture

(48:58) – Free will

(58:27) – Bioelectricity

(1:11:44) – Planaria

(1:23:33) – Building xenobots

(1:47:08) – Unconventional cognition

(2:11:39) – Origin of evolution

(2:18:42) – Synthetic organisms

(2:25:27) – Regenerative medicine

(2:29:14) – Cancer suppression

(2:33:15) – Viruses

(2:38:28) – Cognitive light cones

(2:43:03) – Advice for young people

(2:47:47) – Death

(2:57:17) – Meaning of life