Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
I'll take two things that are considered to be very different things.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
And I'll say, let's just imagine those as two points on a continuum.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
What does that look like?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
What does the middle of that continuum look like?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
What's the symmetry there?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
What's the parameter that I can, you know, what's the knob I can turn to get from here to there?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
So those kinds of, I look for symmetries a lot.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
I'm like, okay, this thing is like that way in what way?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
What's the fewest number of things I would have to move to make this map onto that, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
So those are kind of mental tools.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
The physical process for me,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
is basically, uh, I mean, obviously I'm, I'm fortunate to have a lot of discussions with very smart people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
And so, so in my, in my group, there are some, you know, I've hired some amazing people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
So we of course have a lot of discussions and some stuff comes out of that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
My process is, uh, I do pretty much, pretty much every morning.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
Um, or I, I, I'm outside for sunrise.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
And I walk around in nature.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
There's just not really anything better as inspiration, right, than nature.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
I do photography and I find that it's a good meditative tool because it keeps your hands and brain just busy enough.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#486 โ Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
Like you don't have to think too much, but you know, you're sort of twiddling and looking and doing some stuff.