Professor Terrence Deacon & Professor Michael Levin have both shaped the fields of developmental evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and so much more. In this episode of Mind-Body Solution, these distinguished giants come together in conversation for the very first time: "A Biology Revolution". Terrence Deacon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. Michael Levin is Professor in the Biology department at Tufts University and associate faculty at the Wyss Institute for Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard University. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Introduction 0:42 - Mike on Terry's work 1:32 - Terry on Mike's work 2:48 - Mike & Terry on Daniel Dennett's work 8:10 - Origin of Life & Purpose (Terry's perspective: complexity, thermodynamics, memory) 14:37 - Origin of Life & Purpose (Mike's perspective: models of scaling, polycomputing, spaces of reality) 20:08 - The Self, Beneficiaries & Causal Emergence 26:00 - Strange Loops & Semiotics (Metabolism precedes Neural activity) 29:00 - Causality: Constraints, Morphological Computing & Environmental Offloading 32:50 - Lazy Gene Hypothesis, Inverse Darwinism, Constraints & Energy 40:15 - Regeneration & Memory: Decompression Processes & Complexity 45:30 - Meta-Constraints: Problem Solving Agents & Bioengineering Surprises (beyond genes) 52:57 - Hypothesis Generation & Adaptive Nervous Systems (Competitions between Interpretations) 57:48 - Biologizing Cognition: Evolutionary & Developmental 1:02:40 - Terry's Critique of Mike's work (Preformationism) 1:06:00 - Mike's Response 1:15:22 - Mike's Critique of Terry's work (Teleonomy) 1:18:03 - Terry's Response 1:23:50 - Goal Directedness 1:26:22 - Final Thoughts 1:28:55 - Conclusion EPISODE LINKS:
Mike's Podcast 1:
Mike's Podcast 2:
Mike's Podcast 3:

Mike's Lecture:

Terry's Podcast:

Terry's Lecture:

Daniel Dennett Tribute:

I would not call it life; I would call it death. We are simply not smart enough, or is it too smart?, to create anything as good and whole as nature. Our creations tend to destroy life. Understanding our limitations would be a start, and most scientists do not seem to see this.