Thoughtforms Life

Discussion #1 with Amahury Jafet Lopez Diaz, Carlos Gershenson-Garcia, and Richard Watson

This is a ~1 hour 5 minute discussion with Amahury Jafet Lopez Diaz ( Carlos Gershenson-Garcia ( and Richard Watson ( Stay tuned for part 2 where Amahury will present his ideas in more detail. Amahury's paper: CHAPTERS: (00:00) Common ground and stakes (06:10) Ontology of platonic space (14:50) Testing separate realms (25:52) Acid tests and metaphors (34:55) Interaction and narratives (44:20) Formal facts alternative (52:38) Experiments and surprise (01:00:29) Closing reframing proposal PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing [https://aipodcast.ing] SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing [https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw] Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 [https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5] Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin [https://x.com/drmichaellevin] Blog: https://thoughtforms.life [https://thoughtforms.life] The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org [https://drmichaellevin.org]

A Multiscale Logic of Collective Intelligence" by Donald Hoffman and Chetan Prakash

This is a ~1.5 hour talk + discussion, titled "A Multiscale Logic of Collective Intelligence" by Donald Hoffman ( and Chetan Prakash ( with Robert Chis-Ciure ( and Chris Fields ( and me. CHAPTERS: (00:01) Beyond space-time physics (10:10) Minimal observer participants (18:49) Recursive trace logic (35:08) Actions and trace blankets (43:45) Physics and agency together (52:32) Causal emergence and joins (59:52) Contextuality and quantum logic (01:06:00) Unitarity and positive geometries (01:16:29) Consciousness-first mind theories (01:24:39) Testing models together PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing [https://aipodcast.ing] SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing [https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw] Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 [https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5] Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin [https://x.com/drmichaellevin] Blog: https://thoughtforms.life [https://thoughtforms.life] The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org [https://drmichaellevin.org]

Discussion: Lisa Maroski, Michael Levin, Richard Watson

This is a ~1 hour discussion with Lisa Maroski ( and Richard Watson ( about the role of language in shaping our thinking in the field of diverse intelligence and beyond. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Language and systems thinking (04:25) Parts wholes and resonance (07:34) Who versus what (12:45) Recursion and new structures (17:47) Searching for a word (25:16) Holding multiple polarities (29:41) Nested biological agency (35:42) Patterns and Platonic minds (45:41) Cross-level observers and time (52:45) Knowing and owning beliefs PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing [https://aipodcast.ing] SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing [https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw] Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 [https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5] Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin [https://x.com/drmichaellevin] Blog: https://thoughtforms.life [https://thoughtforms.life] The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org [https://drmichaellevin.org]

Discussion: Richard Watson, Alexey Tolchinsky, Mark Solms, Michael Levin, and Karl Friston

This is a ~1 hour meeting with Richard Watson ( Alexey Tolchinsky ( Mark Solms ( and Karl Friston ( where we discuss issues of memory (especially, the role of forgetting) in diverse intelligence (human patients and beyond), and a bit on dreams and psychoanalysis. The original question from me was motivated by some findings on the effects of induced forgetting in models of unconventional cognition ( and more coming soon). CHAPTERS: (00:00) Role of forgetting (06:22) Overfitting and generalization (10:45) Accuracy minus complexity (21:13) REM sleep and transference (24:40) Choosing futures and pasts (31:18) Cellular psychotherapy ideas (34:58) Dreaming of cell phones (39:47) Photographic memory costs (44:18) Precision and future paths (52:25) Collective cellular identity PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing [https://aipodcast.ing] SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing [https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw] Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 [https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5] Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin [https://x.com/drmichaellevin] Blog: https://thoughtforms.life [https://thoughtforms.life] The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org [https://drmichaellevin.org]

Conversation with Nic Rouleau, part 2: neuroscience, memory transfer, aging of cognition, and more

This is a ~55 minute discussion following up on Nic's talk and our brief conversation ( comprising part 2 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau ( We cover topics of consciousness, neural decoding, the meaning of neuroscience, memory transfer, cognitive plasticity and its relationship to rejuvenation therapies, intelligence throughout the universe, and the weirdest work Nic has done (he chose his work on memory in Playdoh). For more information: Nic's website: X account: @DrNRouleau Recent papers to check out: Sellar, E.P., Rouleau, N. (In Review). A cybernetic framework for synthetic biological intelligence in the era of neural tissue engineering. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/md2wf_v1. Kansala, C., Cicek, E., Nkansah-Okoree, V., Golding, A., Murugan, N.J., Rouleau, N. (In Review). Superstitious conditioning forms the experience of free will under causal determinism. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/fk3yt_v2. Roskies, A. & Rouleau, N. (Forthcoming, In Press). Research on brain organoids should prioritize questions of agency, not consciousness. AJOB Neuroscience. Rouleau, N. & Levin, M. (In Press). Brains and where else? Mapping theories of consciousness to unconventional embodiments. Philosophical Transactions: A. Preprint doi:10.1098/rsta.2025.0082. Rouleau, N., Levin, M. (2024), Discussions of machine versus living intelligence need more clarity, Nature Machine Intelligence, doi:10.31219/osf.io/gz3km Rouleau, N., and Levin, M. (2023), The Multiple Realizability of Sentience in Living Systems and Beyond, eNeuro, 10(11), doi:10.1523/eneuro.0375-23.2023 Rouleau, N., Cairns, D. M., Rusk, W., Levin, M., and Kaplan, D. (2021), Learning and synaptic plasticity in 3D bioengineered neural tissues Neuroscience Letters, 750: 135799 CHAPTERS: (00:00) Rethinking unconscious experience (07:50) Immortality, memory, and aging (20:11) Regeneration, identity, and continuity (34:52) Goal signals and decoding (44:01) Conditioning strange materials (49:15) Neuroscience and cosmic minds PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing [https://aipodcast.ing] SOCIAL LINKS: Podcast Website: https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing [https://thoughtforms-life.aipodcast.ing] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pVafx6EZqXVI2V_Efu2uw] Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thoughtforms-life/id1805908099] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5 [https://open.spotify.com/show/7JCmtoeH53neYyZeOZ6ym5] Twitter: https://x.com/drmichaellevin [https://x.com/drmichaellevin] Blog: https://thoughtforms.life [https://thoughtforms.life] The Levin Lab: https://drmichaellevin.org [https://drmichaellevin.org]