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Transcript
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SPEAKER 1
My name is Asta Saims and welcome to Live Longer World. In today's conversation with Mike Levin and Pamela Leon, we hit the ground running. So I just want to cover some basic groundwork on how they view cognition. In her theory on basal cognition, she states that we don't have to view cognition as something that's necessarily
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associated with just the brain and the nervous system. In fact, in organisms that lack a nervous system, she shows through experiments that they still have some of the properties that we associate with cognition, namely memory, decision-making, and more. So what does this imply for how we think about cognition? Can cells, tissues, artificial intelligence all have cognitive power?
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And what does this mean for regenerative and longevity medicine? This is something we dive into the podcast. So I hope you enjoy the conversation. pamela and i were talking about this offline as well and i think a good place to start would be understanding how you got into the field of cognition because it

Rethinking Cognition for Longevity | Michael Levin & Pamela Lyon

Do our cells have cognition?

Hi, I’m Aastha, and welcome to Live Longer World, where I interview scientists researching the frontiers of longevity science and write about health & longevity practices.


“It’s not all in the genome, the genome is the hardware, it’s the software that runs the damn thing (organisms), which is why all of the work that you’ve (Michael Levin) done on bioelectricity is so very important..The first time I heard you explain it, I said, “My god, this guy is going to win a Nobel prize.”

 - Pamela Lyon commenting on Mike Levin’s work

What if our cells have memory and cognition? What if by associating cognition merely with the brain, we’ve been thinking about it incorrectly?

In this conversation with Dr. Pamela Lyon, who does research on the biology of cognition, and Dr. Michael Levin, whose research is focused on bioelectricity, we discuss:

  • Cognition and creativity is not merely associated with the brain and nervous system

  • Implications of this view of cognition for regenerative medicine and longevity

  • Is stress response the source of our creativity?

This podcast will make you re-think how you view cognition. This new view of cognition extending to all our cells is mind-bending - it changes how we approach medicine and longevity therapies. Timestamps below also cover the topics discussed well.


Watch on YouTube. Listen on Spotify, or any other podcast platform.

Follow me on X @aasthajs for more on longevity. Hope you enjoy the conversation!


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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro, Basal cognition

1:00 Our view of cognition is incorrect

8:50 What does biology have to say about cognition?

12:12 Cognition in xenobots

14:20 Cognition and cooperation in microbes

30:03 Bioelectricity and cognition

33:58 Is stress response the source of our creativity?

43:27 Mike’s paper: Stress-sharing as a cognitive glue

47:31 Implications of cognition not only being associated with brain

56:55 Cognition in AI

1:02:33 View of cognition in the East


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Live Longer World - Interviewing scientists at the frontiers of longevity science.

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Discussion about this video

0:48
And what does this mean for regenerative and longevity medicine? This is something we dive into the podcast. So I hope you enjoy the conversation. pamela and i were talking about this offline as well and i think a good place to start would be understanding how you got into the field of cognition because it