scale-free cognition

I hosted Cortical Labs’ journal club, where we gave a talk about The Computational Boundary of a Self: Developmental Bioelectricity Drives Multicellularity and Scale-Free Cognition, focusing on a paper by Michael Levin of the same name.

Scale-free cognition is the idea that cognitive capacity, which is usually attributed to organisms with nervous systems, has its origins in the problem-solving capabilities of cells and subcellular forms. Cognition is not a binary capacity but rather a spectrum that can be found at multiple levels of biological organization.

The spacio-temporal boundary of events that a system can measure, model, and try to effect, is key to understanding how cognition evolves. These boundaries can grow or shrink, on evolutionary or ontogenic time scales, as the organization of an agent changes.

Bioelectricity, the ability of cells to form electrical networks that process information, drives both multicellularity and cognition. Higher-level goal-directed activity and agency evolve from the primal homeostatic drive of living things to reduce stress and unpredictability.

Through this experience, I deepened my understanding of cognition and its origins. It was inspiring to engage with others interested in synthetic biological intelligence after our talk and hear their diverse perspectives.

Cortical Labs, the creator of DishBrain, a device that fuses living brain cells with chips to create machines with biological intelligence, organized the journal club. One of their notable accomplishments is training in vitro neurons to play pong.

Thanks to Peter Klipfel for organizing the journal club, to Melyne Zhou for being an amazing co-host, to Michael Levin for doing incredible work that motivated the talk, and to everyone who discussed their thoughts after the talk.