Biological and Technological Information Processing: Commonalities, Differences and Implications for Biomedicine and Philosophy of Mind

Abstract: It is increasingly obvious that biological systems process information at all levels — from molecules to cells during embryogenesis to animal behavior. How similar is biological computation to familiar concepts of engineered devices?

In this talk, I will describe aspects of biology that are not widely recognized: the collective intelligence of cells that can serve as a remarkable inspiration for non-neuromorphic computing architectures. I will show our new methods for interfacing to the agential material of life, exploiting its reprogrammability via a bioelectric API for applications in the regenerative medicine of birth defects, cancer and traumatic injury. Beyond biomedicine however, the unique properties of biological computation offer a new perspective on ancient categories of ​“life” vs. ​“machines,” which have many implications for philosophy of mind and ethics.

In this talk, I will explore the new science of diverse intelligence, which seeks to dissolve old frameworks made untenable by advances in bioengineering and developmental biology and reveals a novel path to synthbiosis with a wide range of novel embodied minds.

Bio: Michael Levin is the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University and associate faculty at Harvard’s Wyss Institute. Dr. Levin received dual B.S. degrees in computer science and biology, followed by a Ph.D. from Harvard.