Shows
Mind-Body SolutionJosh Bongard: What are Biological Robots? How AI is Reshaping Life, Consciousness & Matter!Josh Bongard is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Vermont and director of the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory. His work involves automated design and manufacture of soft-, evolved-, and crowdsourced robots, as well as computer-designed organisms. In 2007, he was awarded a prestigious Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship and was named one of MIT Technology Review's top 35 young innovators under 35. In 2010 he was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by Barack Obama at a White House ceremony. He has received funding from NSF, NASA, DARPA, ARO and the Sloan Foundation. He is the co...2025-06-061h 20Mind-Body SolutionTerrence Deacon & Michael Levin: What is Life? Complexity, Cognition & the Origin of PurposeProfessor Terrence Deacon & Professor Michael Levin have both shaped the fields of developmental evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and so much more. In this episode of Mind-Body Solution, these distinguished giants come together in conversation for the very first time: "A Biology Revolution". Terrence Deacon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.Michael Levin is Professor in the Biology department at Tufts University and associate faculty at the Wyss Institute for Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard University. TIMESTAMPS:(0:00) - Introduction(0:42) - Mike on Terry's work(1:32...2025-05-091h 29
Mind & MatterCommunication & Social Cognition in Elephants & Animals | Mickey Pardo | 217Send us a textShort Summary: Do elephants and other animals have language-like abilities, such as the ability to use individual names to refer to themselves and others?About the guest: Michael Pardo, PhD studies animal behavior at Cornell University, where he focused on animal communication and cognition. His work includes extensive field research with African elephants in Kenya.Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and everyone on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere. Full transcript and other information...2025-03-271h 39
The Jim Rutt ShowEP 293 Brendan Graham Dempsey on Cosmic Teleology and Emergence VectorsJim talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey, picking up on a disagreement they had on Facebook about the teleology of the universe. They discuss Aristotle's influence on the topic, Terrence Deacon's work on naturalizing teleology, the distinction between purpose & goal-directed behavior, cosmic teleology, Teilhard de Chardin's "Omega Point," Whitehead's relational teleology, Ilya Prigogine's dissipative structures, energy efficiency comparisons between organisms & stars, the cosmic imperative of entropy production, energy rate density as a complexity measure, whether entropy is the goal or a byproduct of complexification, origin of life as contingent or necessity, Alexander Bard's emergence vectors, questioning of the heat death hypothesis...2025-03-251h 15Mind-Body SolutionTerrence Deacon Lecture: Inverse Darwinism: Evolution as Thermodynamic Work
Terrence Deacon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. His research combines developmental evolutionary biology and comparative neuroanatomy to investigate the evolution of human cognition, and is particularly focused on the explanation of emergent processes in biology and cognition. Terrence is a Harvard Lehman Fellow, a Harvard Medical School Psychiatric Neuroscience Fellow, a Western Washington University Centenary Alumni Fellow, and the 69^th James Arthur Lecturer for the American Museum of Natural History. He has published over 100 research papers in collected volumes and scholarly...2025-01-0224 min
Mind & MatterCreation Myths, Stoned Apes & the Eve Theory of Consciousness | Andrew CutlerSend us a textFull episodes are available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and free on YouTube. This is a free, partial version.About the guest: Andrew Cutler, PhD is a machine learning engineer who has studied natural language processing, psychometrics & personality using quantitative methods. He writes about the origins of consciousness on his Substack, "Vectors of Mind"Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Cutler discuss: language & recursion; human evolution & the origins of "higher" consciousness; symbolic cognition, social intelligence & metacognition; creation myths & ritual cults throughout history; snake...2024-12-0457 min
Mind & MatterNeural Basis of Language in the Human Brain | Ev Fedorenko | 182Send us a textAbout the guest: Ev Fedorenko is a neuroscientist at MIT. Her lab studies the neural basis of language, speech, and thought in the human brain.*Full episode available free on Substack & YouTube.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Fedorenko discuss: the relationship between language and thought; the extent to which language is for thinking vs. communication; Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory; Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; language acquisition & language learning; language networks in the brain; neuroanatomy & brain lateralization; large language models (LLMs) & machine intelligence; and more....2024-10-191h 12
Mind & MatterNeural Basis of Language in the Human Brain | Ev Fedorenko | #182About the guest: Ev Fedorenko is a neuroscientist. Her lab at MIT studies the neural basis of language, speech, and thought in the human brain.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Fedorenko discuss: the relationship between language and thought; the extent to which language is for thinking vs. communication; Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory; Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; language acquisition & language learning; language networks in the brain; neuroanatomy & brain lateralization; large language models (LLMs) & machine intelligence; and more.Related episodes:* M&M #141: Evolution, Language, Domestication, Symbolic Cognition, AI & Large Language Models* M&M #20: La...2024-10-181h 29Mind-Body SolutionTerrence Deacon: Did Mind Emerge From Matter? Origin of Life, Causal Emergence, & Descartes' ShadowWATCH: https://youtu.be/_Kj2OgkxGa0
Terrence Deacon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. His research combines developmental evolutionary biology and comparative neuroanatomy to investigate the evolution of human cognition, and is particularly focused on the explanation of emergent processes in biology and cognition. Terrence is a Harvard Lehman Fellow, a Harvard Medical School Psychiatric Neuroscience Fellow, a Western Washington University Centenary Alumni Fellow, and the 69^th James Arthur Lecturer for the American Museum of Natural History. He has published over 100 research...2024-09-033h 08
jon atack, family and friendsClusterflux with Jeremy Sherman, PhDJeremy has been working with neuroscientist Terrence Deacon at Berkley for 30 years. He shares insights about his head on challenges to true believers which contrasts with Jon's more gentle approach to mindchanging.
Spike's note: Regarding the Universe-spinning, tutu-wearing rhino, I couldn't resist. I plugged the prompt into Meta's AI, but it would not attach the universe to the rhino's horn. So I dragged it into Photoshop and moved the universe over onto the horn myself. The things I do...
Links:
Jeremy's book, What's Up with A**holes?
Jon's translation of the Tao Te Ching
Jon's ideas on how to...2024-08-101h 33
Mind & MatterEvolution: Natural Selection, Genetic Drift, Origin of Life, Cellular Complexity, Epigenetics | Michael Lynch | 166Send us a textAbout the guest: Michael Lynch, PhD is an evolutionary biologist at Arizona State University who studies the origins of genomic and cellular complexity.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Lynch discuss: natural selection vs. genetic drift; genetic mutations & the speed of evolution; origin of life; the evolution of cellular complexity; epigenetics & the inheritance of acquired characteristics; and more.Related episodes:Evolution & Animal Development: How Nature Builds & Changes Bodies | Sean B. Carroll | #138Evolution, Language, Domestication, Symbolic Cognition, AI & Large Language Models | Terrence Deacon | #141...2024-07-141h 29