Could your liver have it’s own intelligent consciousness?

I’m super excited to have had Michael Levin and Bernardo Kastrup discuss how likely it is that cells, organs and other entities might have conscious inner lives of their own, and what might be the basis of life and consciousness in future machines. 

We’ve released most of that conversation to view for free on our youtube channel here:

Michael is doing ground-breaking research that is challenging long-held assumptions about where we can find consciousness, intelligence and selfhood. 

For example, have you ever wondered how the cells in your stomach know to become stomach cells, and the cells of your eyes know to become eye cells? 

Most people say ‘oh, that’s DNA’ - except it isn’t. The whole genome has now been mapped out and whilst there is lots of information in there about what building blocks to make, there is nothing in there about where those building blocks go.  

It’s like getting a package from Ikea that has exactly all the parts that your furniture needs, but no instructions on where they go. 

Not only that, but the bits have to figure out where to go even when unexpected problems are thrown their way. 

For example, their lab has discovered that if they reduce the number of cells an organism has to make a tube, it simply does the same job with one cell wrapping around itself. 

Think about that. The cells have to figure out how to get their job done, in totally unexpected circumstances, and without yet having a brain to help figure out a new solution. 

Who, what or where is the intelligence that is working this out? 

Michael has discovered that this information is at least partly encoded in the bioelectrical field produced around the body. The cells of our bodies are communicating with one another in very similar (although much slower) ways as neurons in the brain. These bioelectrical fields can even be manipulated so as to get functional eyes and even heads to grow in novel places in frog embryos. 

The implications for who or what we consider autonomous agents is huge, as are the potentials for future medical interventions such as cures for cancer, regeneration of limbs and more. 

There is still much to discuss, so we’re doing another round on the 22nd of Dec. You can join live here: https://dandelion.events/e/p7xm2