Every theory of evolution is a theory of engineering. You can test any scientific theory by applying it to technology. The central question in biology: “What does a cell know about itself?” Life directs its own evolution. Three levels of causation: Chemicals (universal laws of physics), codes (local rules of language & logic), and…

Charles Munford hosts a lively discussion every month called “Agential Topics.” I was a guest and the group had a wide ranging enjoyable conversation. My paper “Biology Transcends the Limits of Computation” is the manifesto behind the Evolution 2.0 Prize. In this presentation I explain my wider thinking behind the paper as well as my…

Two of my favorite scientists, Michael Levin and Azra Raza with Aastha Jain Simes, put their heads together in this provocative and touching interview. Azra describes the technology of our new company PredictRX that detects cancer at Stage Negative One. We do this with a “Stentinel,” (starts at 15 minutes in) a stent with electronic…

A colleague sent me an email titled “Science has more bs than marketing, it seems” with a link to an X post that says: In one famous 2012 paper that attempted to reproduce 53 “landmark” studies in cancer biology: Only 6 papers’ findings could be successfully replicated, or just 11% of the top papers in…

She’s 86 yet she looks like she’s in her 60s. After 35 years of Myelodysplastic Syndrome she is still beating the odds every day. In our conversation, she explains her radical outlook and her success under the watchful eye of oncologist Dr. Azra Raza at Columbia University in New York City. To learn more about…

Richard Dawkins authored the world’s #1 best-selling science book “The Selfish Gene” in 1976. Dawkins’ PhD examiner at Oxford was Dr. Denis Noble, who is a longtime friend of Evolution 2.0. Justin Brierley hosted a 3-way conversation where Denis explains how the Selfish Gene has vandalized science and cancer research for 50 years – and…

Just wrapped a mind-bending podcast with John and David Fox. A single teaspoon of bacteria is more sophisticated than an entire building of Google engineers. Not even close. We’re talking 100,000x more complex than anything Silicon Valley has ever produced. This ties directly into what my team discovered about cancer. Everyone thinks it’s just “bad…

Michael was an agnostic / atheist who cheerfully and generously engaged opposing views. Many of his peers on the irreligious side of the fence were hostile and abrasive, but Michael exhibited unwavering respect, always insisting on assuming his opponents operate with positive intent.

This incisive list of questions must be answered before any two people can have a meaningful conversation about the nature of intelligence and AI (because each of us has our own personal definitions & sacred cows about being and beings). From a paper by Nicolas Rouleau and Michael Levin:

Why are important conversations so difficult and why is curiosity the greatest virtue? Dov Baron from British Columbia describes the emotional source code rules that govern our conversations about politics, religion, evolution, cancer and relationships. His website is dovbaron.com. Dov Baron [email protected] Podcast: https://evo2.org/podcasts/courage-fueled-by-curiosity-love/