Michael Levin

And then there's the physical space.

So I find that much more appealing because it suggests a research program, which we are now undergoing in our lab.

The research program is everything that we make.

Cells, embryos, robots, biobots, language models, simple machines, all of it.

They are

interfaces.

All physical things are interfaces to these patterns.

You build an interface, some of those patterns are going to come through that interface.

Depending on what you build, some patterns versus others are going to come through.

The research program is mapping out that relationship between the physical pointers that we make and the patterns that come through it.

Understanding what is the structure of that space, what exists in that space, and what do I need to make physically to make certain patterns come through.

Now, when I say patterns, now we have to ask, what kinds of things live in that space?

Well, the mathematicians will tell you what we already know.

We have a whole list of objects, you know, the amplituhedrons and the, you know, all this crazy stuff that lives in that space.

Yeah, I think that's one layer of stuff that lives in that space.

But I think those patterns are the lower agency kinds of things that are basically studied by mathematicians.

What also lives in that space are much more active, more complex, higher agency patterns that we recognize as kinds of minds.

That behavioral scientists would look at that pattern and say, well, I know what that is.

That's the competency for delayed gratification or problem solving of certain kinds or whatever.

And so what I end up with right now is a model in which that latent space contains things that come through physical objects, so simple patterns, right?