Levin / multiscale cognition
Michael Levin and collaborators: bioelectricity, morphogenesis, agential materials, multiscale competency, cognitive glue.
Papers
33
+8
Thinkers
12
Frameworks
12
Methods
12
Claims
561
+561
Findings
233
+233
Hypotheses
107
Communities
12
New in this area (last 30d)
/recent ↗- Taking AI Welfare Seriously(2024)21d ago
- Living Things Are Not (20th Century) Machines: Updating Mechanism Metaphors in Light of the Modern Science of Machine Behavior(2021)24d ago
- Topological constraints on self-organisation in locally interacting systems(2025)24d ago
- Sustainability and Morphogenesis: The Birth of a Living World(2004)24d ago
- Frieze Patterns of the Alhambra(2007)24d ago
- Toward an ethics of autopoietic technology: Dukkha, care, and Intelligence(2023)24d ago
- Stress Sharing as cognitive glue for collective intelligences: A computational model of Dukkha as a coordinator for Morphogenesis(2024)24d ago
- AI: a Bridge toward Diverse Intelligence and Humanity’s Future(2024)24d ago
Cross-area bridges (15)
also-inEntities that appear in this area AND ≥1 other area. The conceptual seams — usually the most fruitful place to look for new essay material.
- frameworkActive Inference
- frameworkBasal Cognition
- frameworkFree Energy Principle
- frameworkTame Technological Approach To Mind Everywhere
- thinkerMichael Levin
- conceptAnimal Sentience
- conceptBioelectricity
- conceptBiological Degeneracy
- conceptCognitive Light Cone
- conceptCollective Intelligence
- conceptfree energy
- conceptHybrots
- conceptTeleonomy
- frameworkAutopoiesis
- frameworkMultiscale Competency Architecture
Velocity movers (10)
new edges via area papersEntities whose connection to this area grew most in the window — new papers reinforcing existing thinkers / concepts / frameworks.
- thinkerMichael Levin+47
- frameworkBasal Cognition+15
- thinkerKarl Friston+12
- communityBioelectric cognition & collective individuality+8
- conceptBioelectricity+8
- communityMultiscale agency & collective intelligence+7
- frameworkTame Technological Approach To Mind Everywhere+6
- conceptCognitive Light Cone+6
- conceptCollective Intelligence+6
- frameworkFree Energy Principle+6
Top entities in Levin / multiscale cognition
Thinkers (12)
papersAuthors of area papers, by paper count
Frameworks (12)
linksFrameworks introduced or extended by area papers
Methods (12)
linksMethods used in area papers
- dynamic expectation maximisation (DEM)2
- autoregressive modeling1
- Closed-loop techniques1
- Bowtie architecture: compression during learning; creative reinterpretation during recall and generalization1
- causally-masked attention1
- Chemical Genetics1
- Belief Propagation1
- Dirichlet Parameter Accumulation1
- Dyna-style planning1
- Automated planarian training paradigm1
- Euler integration1
- AI Consciousness Test (ACT)1
Concepts (12)
linksConcepts referenced by area papers
Communities (12)
membersClusters with ≥2 area papers as members
- Bioelectric morphogenesis & anatomical intelligence95
- Causal emergence in biological systems58
- Collective intelligence & distributed cognition52
- Care as mechanism of intelligence34
- Active inference & agent ecology28
- Bioelectric morphogenesis & memory26
- Bioelectric memory & morphogenetic identity25
- Stress-Care-Intelligence Loop Framework25
- Morphogenesis as collective basal cognition24
- Substrate-agnostic behavioral inference of cognition21
- Substrate-independent cognition & consciousness20
- Bioelectric networks as morphogenetic cognition18
Top claims (10)
restatesClaims extracted from area papers, ranked by restate-degree
- All intelligence is collective intelligence: each of us consists of a huge number of cells working together to generate a coherent cognitive being with goals, preferences, and memories that belong to the whole and not to its parts.5
- All intelligences are collective intelligences — individual humans are collections of parts, competencies, drives, and tools both internal and external to the body.3
- All intelligences are collectives; individual intelligence arises from the interaction of many unintelligent components arranged in the right organisation.3
- Morphogenesis is a result of collective activity where cells cooperate toward a specific, invariant target morphology, exhibiting goal-directedness.3
- Morphogenesis is an instantiation of collective intelligence, exhibiting anatomical homeostasis and autonomous problem-solving in morphospace.3
- Newt kidney tubule cells, when artificially enlarged, can bend a single cell around itself to achieve correct tubule diameter, illustrating top-down control over molecular mechanisms.3
- All intelligence is collective intelligence, in the sense that it is made of parts that must align with respect to system-level goals.2
- All intelligence is collective intelligence, in the sense that it is made of parts which must align with respect to system-level goals.2
- All intelligences are collectives and all individuals are collectives; individual and collective intelligence are not categorically distinct but unified by connectionist principles.2
- Morphogenesis is the behavior of a collective intelligence of cells solving problems across multiple scales.2
Top findings (10)
restatesFindings extracted from area papers, ranked by restate-degree
- Ectopic eyes on tadpole tail provide functional vision despite connecting only to spinal cord or peripheral tissue.3
- Newt kidney tubule cells produce correct tubule diameter using fewer cells when cell size is enlarged; a single enlarged cell can loop to achieve the same diameter (Fankhauser 1945).3
- Single newt cell can wrap around itself to form a kidney tubule when cell size is artificially increased.3
- Tadpoles with ectopic eyes on tail can see and integrate sensory input from aberrant location3
- Tadpoles with ectopic eyes on tails can see and learn effectively in visual assays.3
- Ectopic eyes on tadpole tails support visual learning despite connecting to the spinal cord.2
- All intelligences are collective intelligences (higher-level selves composed of competent parts); implies distributed consciousness1
- Anatomical goal states could not be inferred from observation of stress states, revealing limits of external observer knowledge1
- Cancer phenotypes can be suppressed by forcing bioelectrical connections among cells, overriding oncogenic mutations (Chernet & Levin 2013).1
- Caterpillar memories survive metamorphosis into butterfly.1
Open questions (10)
Questions from area papers with no answers yet
- How do the molecular events brought on by injecting a frog's egg with an odorant molecule become expanded into a nervous system architecture which controls muscles to behaviorally seek out that odorant as an adult frog?
- What degree of concern and care should we exhibit toward the many diverse agents around us, and what criteria do we use to identify sentience, capacity for suffering, and other properties that have moral implications?
- If the minimization of free energy is just a corollary of descent onto a global random attractor, does this mean that adaptation and evolution are just ways of describing the same thing?
- How can we develop reliable sentience criteria for agents exhibiting intelligence in metabolic, transcriptional, and anatomical problem spaces humans do not recognize as intelligent?
- should the universe be empty to reduce suffering, or is it best to fill it with the potential joy of consciousness in every possible embodiment — what fundamentally matters?
- There is no principled continuum of ethical concern that scales from simple homeostatic agents to complex metacognitive beings, allowing rational allocation of moral status
- How can we understand intelligence in a way that would enable us to create novel instances, as well as improve our own intelligence for life-positive outcomes for all?
- What is the functional distinction between simple language models and multicellular organisms, and can generative AI harness that property to achieve long-range order?
- What features of each theory specifically pick out brains as a privileged substrate of inner perspective, or do the features emphasized by the theory occur elsewhere?
- At what point does one go from a 'real person with perhaps some irrelevant mechanical augmentations' to a 'robot that is just simulating their social interactions'?
All papers in Levin / multiscale cognition
Status:
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