New preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2601.14096 @chrisfields38.bsky.social @bhartl.bsky.social Leo Pio-Lopez "Remapping and navigation of an embedding space via error minimization: a fundamental organizational principle of cognition in natural and artificial systems" 🧪

What kinds of cognitions are possible? Are there discrete classes of cognition? Here's our new paper with @brigan.bsky.social @jordiplam.bsky.social @mitibennett.bsky.social @mkhochb.bsky.social and @drmichaellevin.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2601.12837 We explore basal, neural and human-AI spaces.

A new, long paper on evolution - natural induction - split into 2: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsfs/article... royalsocietypublishing.org/rsfs/article... @RichardWatson90 and Tim Lewens

#naturephotography #infrared

Final version is out: @LPiolopez onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... "Atavistic Genetic Expression Dissociation (AGED) DuringAging: Meta-Phylostratigraphic Evidence of Cellular andTissue-Level Phylogenetic Dissociation" 🧪

Final version is out: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mEoa5bD-s... "Neural cellular automata: Applications to biology and beyond classical AI" @bhartl.bsky.social Léo Pio-Lopez

#naturephotography #infrared

New preprint - Thomas Pollak (substack.com/@drtompollak), Anjali Bhat, Matt Butler, @rokberlot.bsky.social, Mark J Edwards osf.io/preprints/ps... "Have you tried switching it off and on again Mechanisms and therapeutic prospects of resetting homeostatic set points in medicine and neuropsychiatry"

#godzilla #NaturePhotography #infrared

"Cognition all the way down". Great to see this fine new paper from @robertchisciure.bsky.social & @drmichaellevin.bsky.social out now in Synthese - introducing a new metric to quantify biological intelligence as search efficiency in multidimensional problem spaces link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2510.19976 "Morphological computational capacity of Physarum polycephalum" Suyash Bajpai, Aviva Lucas-DeMott, @msahsorin.bsky.social, Philip Kurian

new paper with @robertchisciure.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1... "Cognition all the way down 2.0: neuroscience beyond neurons in the diverse intelligence era" 🧪

New paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... "New insights in the gut–brain axis: the role of bioelectrical microbiome" Juan Lombardo-Hernandez, Jesús Mansilla-Guardiola, Stefano Geuna, Michael Levin, Celia Herrera-Rincon #bioelectricity #microbiome

Official version is out - aging as loss of goal-directedness: advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... @bhartl.bsky.social Léo Pio-Lopez

New paper dropped! Led by @thosvarley.bsky.social and Pai Vaibhav, we show that flows of information within a #xenobot resemble flows of information observed in adult human brains. Thomas provides caveats and context below. w/ @drmichaellevin.bsky.social, Caitlin Grasso, & Jeantine Lunshof.

For those interested in our growing body of work on "polycomputation", here's my attempt to summarize it in 40 minutes: youtu.be/XnObbF2FkE4?...

Here's a talk that's quite different from ones I've given before, although it has connections to everything I often talk about, presented at #alife2025: thoughtforms.life/meet-a-new-s... (downloadable slides link there too). 🧪

Thanks for hosting us Foresight Institute! (w/ @tarinz.bsky.social and @drmichaellevin.bsky.social) www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCq2...

New paper: Santosh Manicka www.cell.com/cell-reports... "Field-mediated bioelectric basis of morphogenetic prepatterning" #morphogenesis #bioelectricity #fields 🧪

New paper! www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy... "Temporal depth in a coherent self and in depersonalization: theoretical model" @lancelotdacosta.bsky.social @tolchinsky.bsky.social Chris Fields Daniel Friedman Rachael Murphy David Pincus

New #preprint - @bhartl.bsky.social , Léo Pio-Lopez arxiv.org/abs/2509.11131 "Neural cellular automata: applications to biology and beyond classical AI"

New #preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @pigozzife.bsky.social, Tom Cirrito - how to re-set memories in GRNs - erasing memories doesn't reduce gains in causal emergence made while learning - higher causal emergence is associated with more learning -> asymmetric ratchet for intelligence 🧪

Final version: "The Role of Bioelectrical Patterns in Regulative Morphogenesis: An Evolutionary Simulation and Validation in Planarian Regeneration" ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/110... 🧪

Can a single cell learn? Even without a brain, some microbes show simple forms of cognition. Can this basal cognition be engineered? Check our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social on the minimal synthetic circuits & their cognitive limits. @drmichaellevin.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint, osf.io/preprints/ps... a commentary to @anilseth.bsky.social's pice at www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🧪

Our paper is published. Co-authored with @drmichaellevin.bsky.social , Chris Fields, @lancelotdacosta.bsky.social ta.bsky.social, Daniel Friedman, Rachael Murphy, David Pincus www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy... this work presents a computational model of dissociations

Are there computational models of the chemistry thought to be relevant to the origin of life? I know there's no consensus, but does anyone have an actually runnable simulation of any plausible chemical soup or reaction dynamics of any kind that are thought to be realistic for an OoL scenario?

Final version of paper is out: www.cell.com/iscience/ful... "Bioelectric characterization of senescing human keratinocytes" #bioelectricity #aging

New paper! Remember this: www.nature.com/articles/s41... showing massive nerve growth following zolmitriptan application in frog model? Well, now here it is in mammals! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... "Sustained Serotonergic Stimulation Platform for Peripheral Axonal Regeneration"

New preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2508.11423 "Open Questions about Time and Self-reference in Living Systems" by Samson Abramsky, Wolfgang Banzhaf, Leo S. D. Caves, Michael Levin, Penousal Machado, Charles Ofria, Susan Stepney, Roger White 🧪

New preprint: "Delusions by design? How everyday AIs might be fuelling psychosis (and what can be done about it)" osf.io/preprints/ps... substack.com/@drtompollak @hamiltonmorrin.bsky.social @aldersonday.bsky.social

Check out hands-on simulations by Lakshwin Shreesha: lksshw.github.io Try it out and let us know if you find anything interesting! Related to our paper on game theory dynamics in morphogenesis: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/109...

A map of the halting problem, illustrated for root-finding methods: thoughtforms.life/halleys-meth...

Final version is out: www.nature.com/articles/s42... "Associative conditioning in gene regulatory network models increases integrative causal emergence". 🧪 Described here: thoughtforms.life/learning-to-...

How does the massively flexible material of the brain figure out how to accomplish its goals? Learn more on this week's episode of Inner Cosmos with guest Mike Levin (@drmichaellevin.bsky.social): "Might we be surrounded with undetected minds?" eagleman.com/podcast/111 #brain #plasticity

How can a single genome run very different programs, and how is that parallel to an animal's brain driving unexpected bodies? Join me with guest Michael Levin (@drmichaellevin.bsky.social) as we discuss different forms of intelligence that surround us. eagleman.com/podcast/111 #brain #plasticity

What is the bioelectric pattern of immortality and mortality in hydra? Happy to share our latest work with Angelina Pimkina, Patrick McMillen, @parandetayyebi.bsky.social, @drpatricke.bsky.social, and @drmichaellevin.bsky.social in the journal Bioelectricity! www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

Just arrived at the UN's #AIForGood Symposium in Geneva. Was in time to catch Daniela Rus' talk on AI Governance; I'll be speaking about #xenobots tomorrow. (Joint work w/ Doug Blackiston, @samkriegman.com & @drmichaellevin.bsky.social).

New paper out, amazing team at Wyss Institute! www.nature.com/articles/s43... "AI-enabled drug prediction and gene network analysis reveal therapeutic use of vorinostat for Rett Syndrome in preclinical models"

Playing with a new IR filter. #photography thoughtforms.life/infrared-pho...