8K views · Aug 14, 2020 · 1:04:08 · 1 HN recommender · 5 mentions · discussed 2021–2023
Michael Levin's keynote at the ALife 2020 conference, 'Robot Cancer', on how bioelectric signaling in embryogenesis and regeneration informs unconventional computing, cognition and the 'software of life'. He argues biology offers lessons for building adaptive machines.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN readers point to it as a companion to other Levin material on bioelectricity, goal-directedness in cells and cancer as a breakdown in cell communication.
“here is a similar keynote lecture from the same person, but a bit more recent and with a few other very interesting notes”HN comment, 2021
“here is a similar keynote lecture from the same person, but a bit more recent and with a few other very interesting notes”
Keynote by Michael Levin with further remarkable notes on cell behavior.
For those that enjoyed this (and it is quite amazing), here is a similar keynote lecture from the same person, but a bit more recent and with a few other very interesting notes: this video
Levin talk on cells forming organs, cited about growing steaks.
I suspect we'll be getting cockroach burger articles more frequently, the WEF has been pushing this for a bit now: link Don't get me wrong, once we can grow real steaks in a petri dish I'm all in. Until then, I'm too old for this $!@#. And we're actually closer to being able to grow steaks than some folks realize. The problem right now is obviously a bunch of muscle cells in a dish is not a steak, you need them forming organs. Badow: this video
“You can also find a keynote from him from the last ALife conference, around the same theme, but less thorough”
Levin keynote on goal-directedness in biology, a less thorough companion to his review.
He also wrote [1], which is a review of the development in that domain in the last 10 years or so. It's amazing how much progress has been made even when compared to OP links which is only 2 years old. This is by far the best thing I have read in the last 12 months. From controlling morphogenesis, re-viewing what life and death really mean, where memory actually live, how to create synthetic lifeforms etc. I would recommend it to anyone. It's strangely relevant to computer science/AI as well in my opinion. The ethical implications are also quite staggering to think about. You can also find a keynote from him from the last ALife conference, around the same theme, but less thorough [2]. [1] "Life, death, and self: Fundamental questions of primitive cognition viewed through the lens of body plasticity and synthetic organisms" link (You can find it in full on Sci-hub). [2] "Multi-scale goal-directedness in biology as inspiration for robotics and artificial life" this video
One of several Levin resources listed.
More about Michael Levin: What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System – link Why don’t (today’s) Robots get Cancer? – this video The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life – link And a tweet about the article – link
“In video format”
Video format of Levin's cancer-as-communication-breakdown research.
Levin, M. (2021), "Bioelectric Signaling: Reprogrammable Circuits Underlying Embryogenesis, Regeneration, and Cancer", Cell [1] is a general overview how cancer is a breakdown in communications leading to a down-scale of the self for the affected cell, see also Levin, M. (2021), "Bioelectrical approaches to cancer as a problem of the scaling of the cellular self", Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology [2]; for more articles [3]. In video format: "Why don't (today's) Robots get Cancer" [4] [1] link [2] link [3] link [4] this video
