Model systems for diverse intelligence research: technological approach to minds everywhere

Profound philosophical questions of our origins, our true nature, and our possible futures are now tractable at the intersection of developmental biology, synthetic bioengineering, computer science, and cognitive science. In this talk, I will describe my framework aimed at developing new tools for recognizing and communicating with truly diverse intelligences - minds along a spectrum of unconventional embodiments. I will show model systems drawn from our work on regenerative medicine (manipulating the collective intelligence of cells during morphogenesis), and novel synthetic beings. The latter raise fascinating questions about cognitive architectures and preferences of novel beings, who do not have a specific history of selection that drove their features, and I will propose a model and research agenda ongoing in our lab. I will also mention recent ideas around the thoughts-are-thinkers continuum and briefly touch on current work on minimal models of diverse intelligence that hint at a dissolution of familiar old categories, which I argue is an existentially important step for our species.

Michael Levin

Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University