Michael Levin

It used to be thought that because all tadpoles look the same and all frogs look the same, if you just remember, if every piece just moves in the right direction, the right amount, then you get your frog, right?

So we decided to test.

I had this hypothesis that I thought actually the system is probably more intelligent than that.

So what did we do?

We made what we call Picasso tadpoles.

So everything is scrambled.

So the eyes are on the back of the head, the jaws are off to the side, everything is scrambled.

Well, guess what they make?

They make pretty normal frogs because all the different things move around in novel paths configurations until they get to the correct froggy, sort of frog face configuration, then they stop.

So the thing about that is now imagine evolution, right?

So you make some sort of mutation and...

It does, like every mutation, it does many things.

So something good comes of it, but also it moves your mouth off to the side, right?

Now, if there wasn't this multi-scale competency, you can see where this is going.

If there wasn't this multi-scale competency, the organism would be dead.

Your fitness is zero because you can't eat.

And you would never get to explore the other beneficial consequences of that mutation.

You'd have to wait until you find some other way of doing it without moving the mouth.

That's really hard.

So the fitness landscape would be incredibly rugged.