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Incredible Minds: The Collective Intelligence of Cells During Morphogenesis with Dr. Michael Levin

The Collective Intelligence of Cells During Morphogenesis: What Bioelectricity Outside the Brain Means for Understanding our Multiscale Nature with Michael Levin — Incredible Minds.

Recorded: April 29, 2023.

Each of us takes a remarkable journey from physics to mind: we start as a blob of chemicals in an unfertilized quiescent oocyte and becomes a complex, metacognitive human being. The continuous process of transformation and emergence that we see in developmental biology reminds us that we are true collective intelligences – composed of cells which used to be individual organisms themselves. In this talk, I will describe our work on understanding how the competencies of single cells are harnessed to solve problems in anatomical space, and how evolution pivoted this scaling of intelligence into the familiar forms of cognition in the nervous system. We will talk about diverse intelligence in novel embodiments, the scaling of the cognitive light cone of all beings, and the role of developmental bioelectricity as a cognitive glue and as the interface by which mind controls matter in the body. I will also show a new synthetic life form, and discuss what it means for bioengineering and ethics of human relationships to the wider world of possible beings. We will discuss the implications of these ideas for understanding evolution, and the applications we have developed in birth defects, cancer, and traumatic injury repair. By merging deep ideas from developmental biophysics, computer science, and cognitive science, we not only get a new perspective on fundamental questions of life and mind, but also new roadmaps in regenerative medicine, biorobotics, and AI.

Michael Levin received dual undergraduate degrees in computer science and biology, followed by a PhD in molecular genetics from Harvard. He did his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, and started his independent lab in 2000. He is currently the Vannevar Bush chair at Tufts University, and an associate faculty member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard. He serves as the founding director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts. His lab uses a mix of developmental biophysics, computer science, and behavior science to understand the emergence of mind in unconventional embodiments at all scales, and to develop interventions in regenerative medicine and applications in synthetic bioengineering. They can be found at www.drmichaellevin.org/

Starlink Direct to Cell Services Start in 2024

Starlink satellites will soon be offering Direct to Cell capabilities to enable texting, calling, and browsing everywhere on Earth. SpaceX will start satellite-based text messaging in 2024 and expand to voice and text support in 2025. They will offer cellular connectivity to IoT devices in 2025. The service will work with existing LTE phones without the need for any hardware, firmware changes, or special apps.

Direct to Cell will also connect IoT devices with common LTE standards. SpaceX plans to equip its future Starlink satellites with an advanced eNodeB modem. This innovation will essentially transform a Starlink satellite into a cellphone tower in space.

This will be enabled by tens of thousands of satellites and eventually millions of satellites will replace most of the 5 million cell towers on Earth. It will means everyone and everything can be connected. All people, robots, and self driving vehicles will be connected.

‘Creepy’ detail in new Kendall Jenner video

This Jenner-active AI is frighteningly good.

Our sci-fi-inspired fears of artificial intelligence replicating us may not be unfounded: Meta set off alarm bells after introducing an AI chatbot named Billie that resembled Kendall Jenner so closely, they thought it was the model herself, the NY Post reports.

A video introducing the creepy Kardashian doppelganger is currently eliciting screams across the web.

OpenAI targets $1.3 billion in annual revenue

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced internally that the company is targeting $1.3 billion in annual revenue, according to The Information.

That’s 30 percent more than the $1 billion in annual revenue leaked over the summer, which was already said to have exceeded investor expectations. The new figure suggests more than $100 million in monthly revenue.

The biggest revenue driver is subscriptions to ChatGPT Plus. Last year, without the ChatGPT Plus offering, OpenAI had revenue of only $28 million, with a loss of $540 million, according to The Information.

Digital Twin Brain: A bridge between biological and artificial intelligence

Recent developments in neuroscience and brain-inspired artificial intelligence have opened up new possibilities in understanding intelligence. Now, a research team led by Tianzi Jiang at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has outlined the key components and properties of an innovative platform called the Digital Twin Brain, which could bridge the gap between biological and artificial intelligence and provide new insights into both. This research was published Sept. 22 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal.

Network structure is something that biological and artificial intelligence have in common. Since the brain consists of biological networks, a digital model or “twin” of the brain built using artificial networks would allow researchers to feed knowledge about biological intelligence into the model. The ultimate goal is to “propel the development of artificial general intelligence and facilitate precision mental healthcare,” a feat calling for joint efforts from interdisciplinary scientists worldwide.

Using the Digital Twin Brain, researchers could explore the working mechanisms of the human brain by simulating and modulating the brain in different states for various cognitive tasks. For example, they could simulate how the brain functions properly in a resting state and how it malfunctions in disorders, or develop methods to shift it away from an undesirable state by modulating its activity.

TSMC: Ecosystem for 2nm Chip Development Is Nearing Completion

Speaking to partners last week as part of their annual Open Innovation Platform forum in Europe, a big portion of TSMC’s roadshow was dedicated to the next generation of the company’s foundry technology. TSMC’s 2 nm-class N2, N2P, and N2X process technologies are set to introduce multiple innovations, including nanosheet gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, backside power delivery, and super-high-performance metal-insulator-metal (SHPMIM) capacitor over the next few years. But in order to take advantage of these innovations, TSMC warns, chip designers will need to use all-new electronic design automation (EDA), simulation, and verification tools as well as IP. And while making such a big shift is never an easy task, TSMC is bringing some good news to chip designers early-on: even with N2 still a couple of years out, many of the major EDA tools, verification tools, foundation IP, and even analog IP for N2 are already available for use.

“For N2 we could be working with them two years in advance already because nanosheet is different,” said Dan Kochpatcharin, Head of Design Infrastructure Management at TSMC, at the OIP 2023 conference in Amsterdam. “[EDA] tools have to be ready, so what the OIP did is to work with them early. We have a huge engineering team to work with the EDA partners, IP partners, [and other] partners.”

*Chip density published by TSMC reflects ‘mixed’ chip density consisting of 50% logic, 30% SRAM, and 20% analog.