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Haleh 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
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Timestamps
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:05 What Is a Neurobot?
0:02:39 Building a Living Robot From Frog Cells
0:08:46 Why These Cells Secretly Want to Be Neurons
0:10:48 What's the Point of This Research?
0:16:26 Brain Cells in a Dish Playing Doom
0:18:16 A Warehouse Full of Human Neurons
0:19:16 What Happened When the Neurons Grew
0:21:36 The Neurons Reached Out for the Body
0:25:51 Why Each Neurobot Has Its Own Personality
0:28:51 Can a Blob of Neurons Have Goals?
0:39:42 Braitenberg's Vehicles: Complexity From Simplicity
0:42:25 Biology Is Cognition All the Way Down
0:49:12 The Eyes That Shouldn't Exist
0:54:18 Xenobots Grew Genes for Hearing
1:01:16 The Role of Bioelectricity
1:04:02 One Question for Michael Levin
1:06:53 What If You Gave the Neurobots DMT?
1:07:27 The Seizure Drug That Surprised Everyone...
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Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com
GS Episodes Mentioned
Michael Levin — Meet the Scientist Creating New Forms of Synthetic Life! Dr Michael Levin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBZRVKUwyM
Brett Kagan — Meet The Neuroscientist Creating New Forms of Sentient Biological Intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXlJc4tu1F8
Philip Ball — Biology Is Infinitely Weirder Than We Thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SseGx0R0fY
Josh Bongard — Meet The Scientist Who Created The First Living Robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h908uoH6n4
Guest Links
Allen Discovery Center (Tufts) Profile: https://allencenter.tufts.edu/our-team/haleh-fotowat-ph-d/Art Website: http://www.halehfotowat.com
Google 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
