Dr. Michael Levin (<a href="https://x.com/drmichaellevin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@drmichaellevin</a>) is the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University and director of the Allen Discovery Center. He is primarily interested in how intelligence self-organizes in a diverse range of natural, engineered, and hybrid embodiments. Applied to the collective intelligence of cell groups undergoing morphogenesis, these ideas have allowed the <a href="https://www.drmichaellevin.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Levin Lab</a> to develop new applications in birth defects, organ regeneration, and cancer suppression.This episode is brought to you by:<a href="https://shipstation.com/tim" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ShipStation</a>&nbsp;shipping software: <a href="https://shipstation.com/tim" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ShipStation.com/Tim</a><a href="https://drinkag1.com/tim" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AG1</a>&nbsp;all-in-one nutritional supplement:&nbsp;<a href="https://drinkag1.com/tim" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DrinkAG1.com/Tim</a><a href="https://fromourplace.com/tim" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Our Place’s Titanium Always Pan® Pro</a>&nbsp;using nonstick technology that’s coating-free and made without PFAS, otherwise known as “forever chemicals”: <a href="https://fromourplace.com/tim" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FromOurPlace.com/Tim</a>TIMESTAMPS:<ul><li>[00:00:00] Start</li><li>[00:03:18]&nbsp;The Body Electric: A Vancouver bookstore discovery that launched a career.</li><li>[00:04:19] Bioelectricity 101: Your brain uses it to think; your body used it before you had a brain.</li><li>[00:06:05] The lesson learned by scrambled tadpole faces that rearrange themselves.</li><li>[00:08:51] Software vs. hardware: The genome is your factory settings, not your destiny.</li><li>[00:11:43] Two-headed flatworms: Rewriting biological memory without touching DNA.</li><li>[00:16:20] Seeing memories: Voltage-sensitive dyes reveal the body’s hidden blueprints.</li><li>[00:20:12] Three killer apps for humans: Birth defects, regeneration, and cancer.</li><li>[00:24:27] Cancer as identity crisis: Cells forgetting they’re part of a team.</li><li>[00:25:40] The boredom theory of aging: Goal-seeking systems with nothing left to do.</li><li>[00:30:09] Planaria’s immortality hack: Rip yourself in half every two weeks.</li><li>[00:31:27] Manhattan Project for aging: Crack cellular cognition, everything else falls into place.</li><li>[00:33:47] Giving cells new goals: Convince a gut to become an eye.</li><li>[00:37:42] Must mammalian mortality be mandatory?</li><li>[00:40:25] Cross-pollination: Why biologists would benefit from programming courses.</li><li>[00:47:15] Does acupuncture actually do anything?</li><li>[00:50:57] Placebo as feature, not bug: Words and drugs share the same mechanism.</li><li>[00:55:06] The frame problem: Why robots explode and rats intuit what matters.</li><li>[00:59:41] Binary thinking is a trap: “Is it intelligent?” is the wrong question.</li><li>[01:07:46] Minimal brain, normal IQ: Clinical cases that break neuroscience.</li><li>[01:08:45] Super panpsychism: Your liver might have opinions.</li><li>[01:13:48] The Platonic space: Bodies as thin clients for patterns from elsewhere.</li><li>[01:15:24] Keep asking “why” and you end up in the math department.</li><li>[01:23:07] Polycomputing: Sorting algorithms secretly doing side quests.</li><li>[01:28:24] Power scaling for the future and avoiding red herrings for understanding machine minds.</li><li>[01:34:06] Sci-fi recommendations.</li><li>[01:37:24] Cliff Tabin’s toast and Dan Dennett’s steel manning.</li><li>[01:41:21] Parting thoughts.</li></ul>*For show notes and past guests on&nbsp;<a href="https://tim.blog/podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Tim Ferriss Show</a>, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://tim.blog/podcast/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcast-description" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tim.blog/podcast</a>.For deals from sponsors of&nbsp;<a href="https://tim.blog/podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Tim Ferriss Show</a>,&nbsp;please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://tim.blog/podcast-sponsors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tim.blog/podcast-sponsors</a>Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at&nbsp;<a href="https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tim.blog/friday</a>.For transcripts of episodes, go to&nbsp;<a href="https://tim.blog/transcripts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tim.blog/transcripts</a>.Discover Tim’s books:&nbsp;<a href="https://tim.blog/books" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tim.blog/books</a>.Follow Tim:Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/tferriss" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">twitter.com/tferriss</a>&nbsp;Instagram:&nbsp;<a href="https://instagram.com/timferriss/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">instagram.com/timferriss</a>YouTube:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/timferriss" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">youtube.com/timferriss</a>Facebook:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">facebook.com/timferriss</a>&nbsp;LinkedIn:&nbsp;<a href="http://linkedin.com/in/timferriss" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">linkedin.com/in/timferriss</a>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

#849: Dr. Michael Levin — Reprogramming Bioelectricity, Updating "Software" for Anti-Aging, Treating Cancer Without Drugs, Cognition of Cells, and Much More

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#849: Dr. Michael Levin — Reprogramming Bioelectricity, Updating "Software" for Anti-Aging, Treating Cancer Without Drugs, Cognition of Cells, and Much More

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