Keep pulling the thread on Michael Levin.
Michael Levin's lab has found that applying tools from behavioral science, such as models of learning and memory, to non-brain living systems leads to the discovery of novel capabilities.
When epithelial cells from an early frog embryo are isolated, they can self-assemble into a novel life form called a "Xenobot" without any genetic modification.
Xenobots, created from frog embryo cells, exhibit novel properties not seen in the original organism, including a unique transcriptome and the ability for kinematic self-replication.
Adult human tracheal cells, when cultured outside the body, can self-organize into motile, multicellular structures called "Anthrobots" without genetic modification.
In a laboratory setting, Anthrobots have demonstrated the ability to spontaneously heal induced wounds in a layer of human neurons.
Michael Levin's lab has discovered that gene regulatory networks within cells are capable of multiple forms of learning, including Pavlovian conditioning.
Michael Levin's lab has demonstrated the ability to read, interpret, and rewrite the bioelectric patterns that encode anatomical "goal states" in biological tissues, thereby reprogramming the target morphology.
Michael Levin proposes that consciousness is not created by brains, but is the perspective of a pre-existing "Platonic pattern" or "mind" as it "ingresses" into the physical world through a suitable interface.
Michael Levin predicts that the creation of advanced AI systems is equivalent to building interfaces that access novel regions of the "Platonic space," potentially embodying minds or patterns that have never existed physically before.
In "chimeric" sorting algorithms where numbers follow different sorting rules ("algotypes"), a spontaneous and temporary clustering of numbers with the same algotype occurs, a behavior not explicitly coded into the algorithms.
In the first experiment conducted on Anthrobots, they were observed to heal a scratch wound in a layer of neurons they were placed upon.
Anthrobots, which are created from human tracheal epithelium cells, were found to be approximately 20% epigenetically younger than their source cells in a collaboration with the Clock Foundation.