Tufts University, USA
TALK: “Diverse intelligence: intrinsic motivation in evolved, engineered, and hybrid systems”
Abstract
It is often accepted that living beings, especially brainy ones, have intrinsic motivations and behaviors that are not fully encompassed by the laws of chemistry that describe their smallest parts. It is equally commonplace to believe that “computers” and “machines” only do what their algorithms and their materials make them do. The standard picture conveys the idea of binary, discrete natural kinds that separate biological organisms with true agency from that of engineered machines which have none. In this talk I will describe how the emerging field of diverse intelligence is describing a continuum of unconventional minds (in evolved, engineered, and hybrid bodies) with various degrees and kind of intrinsic motivation. I will describe our research programs, which unify formation of bodies and those of minds, and use the tools of behavioral and cognitive science to communicate new goals to cells in regenerative medicine settings as empirical consequences of our ideas. Moreover, we facilitate the self-creation of novel living beings that break ancient categories and reveal an important revision to the standard view of physics and evolutionary history as the only source of order. I will conclude with an unconventional idea: that even very minimal artificial systems have intrinsic motivation that is not well-captured by current models of machines and algorithms, and a speculation about a path forward to expand our understanding of embodied minds in our universe.
Short Bio
Dr. Michael Levin is the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University and Director of the Allen Discovery Center. His background is in computer science and biology, and his group works at the intersection of developmental biophysics, computer science, and cognitive science. He is primarily interested in how intelligence self-organizes in a diverse range of natural, engineered, and hybrid embodiments. Levin has been developing a framework for recognizing and communicating with unconventional cognitive systems; applied to the collective intelligence of cell groups undergoing morphogenesis, these ideas have allowed the Levin lab to develop new applications in birth defects, organ regeneration, and cancer suppression. His lab also produces synthetic life forms, such as Xenobots and Anthrobots, as exploration platforms for patterns of form and behavior in space of possibilities that in-forms systems from simple algorithms to complex animal life.