Persuadability: A Spectrum of Intelligence and Agency

Resources

Resources & Recommendations

People Mentioned

• DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) (Creator of Ruby on Rails) - Mentioned for his articulation of Ruby on Rails and his continued presence on X, highlighting him as a "beautiful human being" and a supporter of Shopify.
• Toby (Tobias Lütke) (CEO of Shopify) - Mentioned as being close with DHH, indicating that "great human beings and great engineers can create great products."
• Richard Watson - Mentioned for his concept of "mutual vulnerable knowing," which describes the bidirectional relationship in persuasion between intelligent beings.
• Jeremy Gay (Graphic Artist) - Credited for drawing the figures in Michael Levin's paper, "Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere."
• Kevin Hart (Comedian/Actor) - Mentioned as an example of a charismatic person with a MasterClass course.
• Will Ferrell (Actor/Comedian) - Mentioned as an example of someone with strong stage presence, similar to Kevin Hart.
• Stephen Curry (Basketball Player) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1 Driver) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• Serena Williams (Tennis Player) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• Gordon Ramsay (Chef) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• John Legend (Musician) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• Samuel L. Jackson (Actor) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• Natalie Portman (Actress) - Mentioned as having a MasterClass course.
• William James (Philosopher/Psychologist) - Mentioned for his definition of intelligence as "same goal by different means."
• Bose - A scientist from over 100 years ago who studied how anesthesia affected animals, plants, and even metals, illustrating the idea that scientific tools shouldn't be limited by preconceived categories.
• Chris Fields - Mentioned for collaborative work on the distinction between thoughts and thinkers.
• Pythagoras (Ancient Greek Philosopher/Mathematician) - Referenced for his understanding that there is a set of truths that impact the physical world but are not defined by it.
• Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher) - Referenced for his ideas on the "Platonic space" and the existence of forms that are independent of the physical world.
• Don Hoffman (Cognitive Psychologist) - Mentioned in the context of the "interface theory of perception," suggesting that our reality is a construct.
• Anil Seth (Neuroscientist) - Mentioned in the context of the "interface theory of perception," suggesting that our reality is a construct.
• Karina Coffman - Co-authored a paper reviewing clinical cases where individuals with minimal brain tissue exhibited normal or above-normal intelligence.
• Federico Pegasi (Member of Michael Levin's group) - Credited for work on the causal emergence of chemical networks during learning.
• Steve Horvath (Biostatistician/Geneticist) - Referenced for his work on epigenetic clocks, which can estimate biological age based on epigenetic states of cells.
• Richard Dawkins (Evolutionary Biologist) - Mentioned when discussing the concept of memes as organisms.
• Albert Einstein (Physicist) - Quoted at the end of the episode: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

Research & Studies

• "Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere (TAME): An Experimentally Grounded Framework for Understanding Diverse Bodies and Minds" (Michael Levin et al.) - A paper outlining a framework for understanding intelligence and agency in various systems, from biological to computational, focusing on the concept of "persuadability."
• Paper on Casual Emergence of Networks (Federico Pegasi in Michael Levin's group) - Research indicating a positive feedback loop between learning and integration in chemical networks, suggesting that learning increases the "phi level" (a measure of integrated information).
• Study on Epigenetic Clocks (Steve Horvath and others) - Work demonstrating that epigenetic states of cells can be used to estimate biological age, mentioned in the context of anthrobots reversing their age.
• Review Paper on Minimal Brain Tissue and Intelligence (Karina Coffman and Michael Levin) - A paper reviewing clinical cases where individuals with very little brain tissue exhibited normal or above-normal intelligence, which challenges conventional neuroscience predictions.
• Paper on Ant Colony Visual Illusions - Research showing that ant colonies exhibit similar visual illusions to humans, suggesting that certain cognitive phenomena are not unique to human brains.

Concepts & Theories

• Mutual Vulnerable Knowing (Richard Watson) - A concept describing a bidirectional relationship in persuasion where both parties are open to being influenced.
• Cognitive Light Cone - Michael Levin's concept defining the size of the biggest goal state a system can pursue, used to describe the scaling of intelligence and agency.
• Age Evidencing - Michael Levin's theory suggesting that cells update their prior beliefs about age based on their environment and experiences, leading to phenomena like age reversal in anthrobots.
• Platonic Space - A concept, inspired by Plato and Pythagoras, referring to a latent, structured space containing fundamental truths and patterns (mathematical, anatomical, psychological) that can be "ingressed" or manifested through physical interfaces.
• Platonic Representation Hypothesis - A concept from the machine learning community that converges with Michael Levin's ideas on the Platonic space.
• Causal Emergence - A measure (like "phi") that quantifies the degree to which a system acts as an integrated agent, more than the sum of its parts.
• Booting Up the Agent - A concept describing the earliest steps of a system becoming an agent, analogous to a computer booting up.
• Steganography - The practice of concealing a message or data within another non-secret message or data, used as an analogy for how patterns from the Platonic space "seep" into physical reality.

Other Resources

• Asynchronous Conference on Platonic Space - An ongoing online conference discussing the concept of Platonic space from various disciplines, featuring talks like:
  • "Patterns of Forms and Behavior Beyond Emergence" (Michael Levin)
  • "Radical Platonism and Radical Empiricism" (Joel)
  • "Patterns and Explanatory Gaps in Psychotherapy"
  • "Does God Play Dice" (Alexei Tolchinsky)
• Map of Mathematics - A visual representation showing how different mathematical concepts and fields are interconnected, used as an analogy for the structured nature of the Platonic space.
• Halle Map - A type of fractal that appears organic and biological, used as an example of a complex mathematical pattern derived from a simple formula.
• Xenobots - Synthetic biological organisms created from frog cells that exhibit novel behaviors and capabilities not directly selected for by evolution.
• Anthrobots - Synthetic biological organisms created from adult human cells that self-organize into motile structures with healing capabilities, such as repairing neural wounds.
• Softmax - A company with which Michael Levin's lab collaborates to engineer cognitive cones in biological systems.