#127 Meet the Neuroscientist Who Gave A Brain to Michael Levins Xenobot’s

Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool): https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqeUpgrade Your Shaving Experience With Henson (100 FREE BLADES): https://hensonshaving.com/thegiantsshoulderWant a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/aboutHaleh Fotowat is a neuroscientist who builds nervous systems from scratch — the scientist who gave neurons to Michael Levin's xenobots, the living robots made from frog cells. When those neurons self-organised into a working nervous system, they switched on genes for eyes, in a creature that has never had eyes and never existed in nature.Expect to learn how a clump of frog skin cells becomes a moving biological robot, why these cells secretly default to becoming neurons unless their neighbours stop them, what happened when the neurons grew axons and reached out for the body, why every neurobot develops its own movement personality, how a brainless blob forces you to redefine agency and goals, why the neurons switched on genes for eyes despite having none, what a seizure drug revealed about which biobots truly have nervous systems, what might happen if you gave the neurobots DMT, and much more…Timestamps0:00:00 Trailer0:02:05 What Is a Neurobot?0:02:39 Building a Living Robot From Frog Cells0:08:46 Why These Cells Secretly Want to Be Neurons0:10:48 What's the Point of This Research?0:16:26 Brain Cells in a Dish Playing Doom0:18:16 A Warehouse Full of Human Neurons0:19:16 What Happened When the Neurons Grew0:21:36 The Neurons Reached Out for the Body0:25:51 Why Each Neurobot Has Its Own Personality0:28:51 Can a Blob of Neurons Have Goals?0:39:42 Braitenberg's Vehicles: Complexity From Simplicity0:42:25 Biology Is Cognition All the Way Down0:49:12 The Eyes That Shouldn't Exist0:54:18 Xenobots Grew Genes for Hearing1:01:16 The Role of Bioelectricity1:04:02 One Question for Michael Levin1:06:53 What If You Gave the Neurobots DMT?1:07:27 The Seizure Drug That Surprised Everyone...... Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.comGS Episodes MentionedMichael Levin — Meet the Scientist Creating New Forms of Synthetic Life! Dr Michael Levin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBZRVKUwyMBrett Kagan — Meet The Neuroscientist Creating New Forms of Sentient Biological Intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXlJc4tu1F8Philip Ball — Biology Is Infinitely Weirder Than We Thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SseGx0R0fYJosh Bongard — Meet The Scientist Who Created The First Living Robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h908uoH6n4Guest LinksAllen Discovery Center (Tufts) Profile: https://allencenter.tufts.edu/our-team/haleh-fotowat-ph-d/Art Website: http://www.halehfotowat.comGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=W5KTeEMAAAAJLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleh-fotowat/ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Haleh-Fotowat-2245482149