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Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic is a physicist turned cognitive scientist and Professor Emeritus at Chalmers University of Technology, with doctorates in both physics and computer science. Across three careers she built info-computationalism: the idea that nature is information and computation at every level, from particles to minds. Her conclusion puts her at odds with much of her own field. Cognition arrives with life itself, which puts consciousness in a single bacterium and nowhere in today's AI.
Expect to learn:
- Info-computationalism: why nature is information and computation all the way down
- Cell consciousness: why a single cell is already sensing, deciding and minimally aware
- The Levin divide: where she draws the line Michael Levin won't
- Anaesthetised bacteria: why ether switches off organisms with no brain
- Machines that can't feel: why today's AI has intelligence but no goals of its own
SPONSORS
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GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Michael Levin - Michael Levin: Bioelectricity, Morphogenesis, Platonic Spaces & Xenobots: https://youtu.be/LTBZRVKUwyM
Michael Levin & Earl Miller - Michael Levin & Earl Miller: Platonic Space of Minds, Bioelectricity, Cell Intelligence & Neurobots: https://youtu.be/6mU5nN5nlLA
William B. Miller Jr. - Meet The Scientist Proving Your Cells Are Conscious and Intelligent: https://youtu.be/xrV5oGyyKSI
Mark Solms - Meet the Scientist Proving Dreams Hold the Key to Consciousness! Dr Mark Solms: https://youtu.be/nMWaQ1U6dcc
GUEST LINKS
Chalmers Profile: https://www.chalmers.se/en/persons/dodig/
X: https://x.com/DodigGordana
Chalmers Research Publications: https://research.chalmers.se/en/person/dodig
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bvc5bBsAAAAJ
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9881-400X
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordana-dodig-crnkovic/
LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/D4jBgWV8BoY
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:44 Physicist, Computer Scientist, Cognitive Scientist
0:08:05 What Is Information, Really?
0:13:16 You Can't Observe Without Changing The System
0:16:14 Are Conscious Agents The Most Fundamental Thing?
0:20:06 A Single Cell Is Already Conscious
0:27:16 Where She Parts Ways With Michael Levin
0:28:41 Can We Build A Machine That Creates Itself?
0:33:38 Why A Book Is Just Food To An Insect
0:39:40 You Are Trillions Of Information Agents
0:44:09 Science's Obsession With Measurement
0:46:40 Xenobots And The Cells Nobody Programmed
0:51:02 Agency Or Just Complicated Chemistry?
0:55:58 Why No Experiment Can Settle This
0:57:22 Where Computation Ends And Cognition Begins
1:01:08 Would Levin Say Gene Networks Think?
1:03:37 Why Survival Might Be Essential For Consciousness
1:07:07 You Can Anaesthetise A Bacterium
1:11:08 Can Consciousness Be Written Down As Maths?
1:19:31 How AI Could Help Us Understand Minds
1:22:35 Should We Ever Build Conscious AI?
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