Life, Intelligence, and Embodied Computation - Blaise Agüera y Arcas

Blaise Agüera y Arcas explores some mind-bending ideas about what intelligence and life really are—and why they might be more similar than we think.Life and intelligence are both fundamentally computational (he says). From the very beginning, living things have been running programs. Your DNA? It's literally a computer program, and the ribosomes in your cells are tiny universal computers building you according to those instructions.**SPONSOR MESSAGES**—Prolific - Quality data. From real people. For faster breakthroughs.https://www.prolific.com/?utm_source=mlst—cyber•Fund https://cyber.fund/?utm_source=mlst is a founder-led investment firm accelerating the cybernetic economyOct SF conference - https://dagihouse.com/?utm_source=mlst - Joscha Bach keynoting(!) + OAI, Anthropic, NVDA,++Hiring a SF VC Principal: https://talent.cyber.fund/companies/cyber-fund-2/jobs/57674170-ai-investment-principal#content?utm_source=mlstSubmit investment deck: https://cyber.fund/contact?utm_source=mlst— Blaise argues that evolution isn't just about random mutations (like most people think). The real secret to increasing complexity is merging—when different organisms or systems come together and combine their capabilities.Blaise describes his "BFF" experiment where random computer code spontaneously evolved into self-replicating programs, showing how purpose and complexity can emerge from pure randomness through computational processes.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Ag%C3%BCera_y_Arcashttps://x.com/blaiseaguera?lang=enTRANSCRIPT:https://app.rescript.info/public/share/VX7Gktfr3_wIn4Bj7cl9StPBO1MN4R5lcJ11NE99hLgTOC:00:00:00 Introduction - New book "What is Intelligence?"00:01:45 Life as computation - Von Neumann's insights00:12:00 BFF experiment - How purpose emerges00:26:00 Symbiogenesis and evolutionary complexity00:40:00 Functionalism and consciousness00:49:45 AI as part of collective human intelligence00:57:00 Comparing AI and human cognitionREFS:What is intelligence [Blaise Agüera y Arcas]https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org/ [Read free online, interactive rich media]https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049955/what-is-intelligence/ [MIT Press]Our first Noam Chomsky MLST interviewhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axuGfh4UR9Q Chance and Necessity [Jacques Monod]https://monoskop.org/images/9/99/Monod_Jacques_Chance_and_Necessity.pdfWonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the History of Nature [Stephen Jay Gould]https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonderful-Life-Burgess-Nature-History/dp/0099273454 The major evolutionary transitions [E Szathmáry, J M Smith]https://wiki.santafe.edu/images/0/0e/Szathmary.MaynardSmith_1995_Nature.pdfDon't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle [Dan Everett]https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386120 The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves [W. Brian Arthur] https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Technology-What-How-Evolves-ebook/dp/B002RI9W16/ The MANIAC [Benjamin Labatut]https://www.amazon.com/MANIAC-Benjam%C3%ADn-Labatut/dp/1782279814 When We Cease to Understand the World [Benjamin Labatut]https://www.amazon.com/When-We-Cease-Understand-World/dp/1681375664/ The Boys in the Boat [Dan Brown]https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Boat-Americans-Berlin-Olympics/dp/0143125478 How something can be said about Telling More Than We Can Know [Petter Johansson] (Split brain)https://www.lucs.lu.se/fileadmin/user_upload/lucs/2011/01/Johansson-et-al.-2006-How-Something-Can-Be-Said-About-Telling-More-Than-We-Can-Know.pdfIf Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies [Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nate Soares]https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Builds-Everyone-Dies-Superhuman/dp/0316595640 The science of cycology: Failures to understand how everyday objects work [Rebeca Lawson]https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/bf03195929.pdf <trunc, see YT desc>