Michael Levin

Developmental biology is uniquely poised to contribute to the study of embodied minds, because it is there that we see, right in front of our eyes, the journey from physics and chemistry to behavioral science and beyond. While I do not have a new theory of consciousness to propose and am not a consciousness scientist, I will discuss research whose findings will surely impact this field: (1) our framework for recognizing and communicating with the collective intelligence of cells, which illustrates how our bodies host innumerable co-existing minds functioning in diverse problem spaces (worlds), and reveals why we must take consciousness beyond the brain very seriously; (2) our production of novel synthetic living beings, which raise important questions about new sources of information in biology and beyond, which bears on the (non)viability of physicalism; (3) an agency ratchet functioning before replication takes place, showing patterns potentiating life and mind but themselves requiring neither specific physics nor evolutionary history.

Michael Levin, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor at Tufts University and director of the Allen Discovery Center. His research investigates how cells and tissues process information to coordinate complex biological form and behavior. His work spans developmental biology, bioelectricity, regeneration, synthetic biology, and basal cognition, exploring how collective cellular intelligence contributes to development and the emergence of agency.