Startseite
Podcasts
Giants Shoulder Podcast
#94 Meet The Scientist Who Created The First Living Robot

#94 Meet The Scientist Who Created The First Living Robot

Giants Shoulder vor 7 Monaten

0:00

1:08:09

Dr. Josh Bongard is a computer scientist, roboticist, and
co-creator of Xenobots — the world’s first living robots made
from frog cells, capable of movement, healing, and even
self-replication.

Together with biologist Michael Levin, Bongard’s work is upending
some of biology’s most sacred assumptions: that DNA is a
blueprint, that the brain is the seat of intelligence, and that
only neurons can think. In his lab at the University of Vermont,
he’s building AI-designed organisms that challenge our
understanding of life, agency, intelligence, and what it means to
be a self.

Expect to learn how a pile of skin cells assembled itself into a
replicating robot, why biology may be cognitive all the way down,
how AI is learning to design living systems from scratch, why
memory and learning might emerge in systems without brains, why
the illusion of consciousness could be evolution’s greatest
trick, how Xenobots are influencing the future of robotics and
synthetic life, what moral standing these beings might eventually
require, and why your high school biology textbook may have
gotten almost everything wrong

…

Timestamps:

00:00 The Birth of Xenobots

03:08 Understanding Xenobots: Science and Implications

05:57 Cognition and Intelligence: A New Perspective

08:53 Defining Consciousness and Self-Awareness

12:09 Memory and Learning in Xenobots

14:46 The Nature of Experience and Reality

18:00 Exploring Agency and Adaptation

20:52 The Future of Xenobots and Robotics

28:10 The Evolution of Robotics: Learning from Biology

30:21 Human-Like Adaptability in Robots

33:10 Xenobots: The Future of Self-Replication

37:38 Understanding Agency in Xenobots

40:47 The Challenge of Defining Agency

43:35 Ethical Considerations of Xenobots

45:07 AI and the Future of Biological Robotics

47:43 The Role of AI in Understanding Biology

52:05 The Potential of AI in Biological Discoveries

55:15 The Moral Implications of Synthetic Life

01:00:01 Future of Food and Ethical Eating

...

Episodes Mentioned: Challenging a Famous Neuroscientist On When
Consciousness First Emerged: https://youtu.be/ZnasmLpY5_8

Meet the Scientist Who Mathematically Proved Reality is an
Illusion! Round 2: https://youtu.be/kTKE8eLo8CU

Philip Ball: Why Quantum Mechanics is NOT What you think,
Consciousness, Brain Organoids, AI & Life!:
https://youtu.be/nNbG5lnp51E

️ Subscribe to our main channel -
https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA
Follow on Apple Podcasts -
https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download
my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE:
https://thegiantsshoulder.com/