#94 Meet The Scientist Who Created The First Living Robot

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





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