For more than three decades, Michael Levin has challenged many long-standing tenets of what defines cognition and consciousness—and he shows no signs of stopping.
What is intelligence? We can all agree that humans are intelligent and many of us would likely extend that definition to the most mentally adept creatures of the animal kingdom—from dolphins to corvids. Scientists may extend that definition to all living animals, and some might even include plants. But for Michael Levin, Ph.D., all of those definitions woefully undercount the intelligences, or as he phrases them, "alien minds," that surround us. As a synthetic and developmental biologist at Tufts University in Massachusetts, Levin has explored the cognitive glue of bioelectricity, created biobots from animal and human cells, searched for empirical evidence defining the scope of cognition, and challenged many of the long-held tenets of molecular biology. Fascinated by electrical engineering and biology since he was seven years old, Levin says all of these efforts are in service of developing a mature field of diverse intelligence—one that can recognize that cognition lies on a spectrum, and that what humans perceive as consciousness could look radically different when compared to a cell or emerging artificial intelligence. We spoke with Levin about how he developed these remarkable ideas, why he believes many alien minds live among us, and what he hopes for humanity's future. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity. What drives you to search for novel ideas to prove the existence of other intelligences, or "alien minds?" I don't actually believe that digging downwards and inwards is the only kind of explanation. Engineering requires you to not worry about philosophical problems of what anything actually is, but more importantly—what bag of tools are you going to bring to this? This is critical because when people say "I don't want to think about cells as cognitive agents," then there are engineering [outcomes] that you will never reach. Your view leaves discoveries on the table. That view is also quite unpopular. There are the…