IDEAS ON THE FRONTLINE
A cutting-edge American biologist has proposed an idea that radically challenges orthodoxy: Biology is influenced by non-physical processes.
Noted research biologist Michael Levin has proposed that “minds,” described as dynamic patterns in a non-physical space, influence biology. The idea is a radical challenge to conventional science from a leading scholar. So well regarded is the Tufts University professor, and so bold his proposal, New York magazine on published a full-length feature last month on Levin and his work.
Michael Levin is the Vannever Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University. He directs the Allen Discovery Center and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. He was one of the featured biologists cited in a recent book, “The Power of Life,” by Stanford University historian of science Jessica Riskin, which describes how evolutionary biology is challenging the Neo-Darwinian view that evolution happens when random genetic mutations create changes.
Levin already was cutting-edge before the metaphysical proposal. As a developmental and synthetic biologist, he and his collaborators study the collective intelligence of cells, and create novel forms of life, including living, programmable organisms made from frog cells. Practical applications of their work involve repair of birth defects, and regenerative medicine.
Yet, Levin’s latest metaphysical proposal is even more revolutionary for biology. He first began to lay out his idea in March of last year with a preprint essay. Levin emphasizes his theory is speculative at this point. A pragmatist, he said theory must produce tangible benefits. Long-term, his research will “understand and exploit the mapping” between “platonic” space and form. “Platonic” refers to ancient Greek philosopher Plato’s idea that there is a non-physical space of truths which we discover, not invent.
Levin says science already has proven physicalism is incomplete. He now believes thinking and form are influenced not only by genes and environment, but by platonic space from which patterns of mind and matter “ingress.” Bodies, even robot bodies, act as interfaces rather than creators of consciousness.
“In this view, physical bodies don’t create, or even connect to (and thus have) minds,” Levin writes in an essay. “Instead, minds are the patterns, with their ingressions into the physical world enabled by the pointers of natural or synthetic bodies.”
The idea of platonic space is ancient, Levin says. Unlike Plato, however, he believes these non-physical patterns are dynamic, not perfect and static. Last fall he organized an interdisciplinary symposium on platonic space with thinkers from institutions such as MIT and Oxford.
Levin’s idea departs from the mainstream view that biochemical processes in the brain produce consciousness. It also is not an argument for Creationism or Intelligent Design. Levin says quantum mechanics is not required to make the mind-body “interface,” further distinguishing his view.
Levin is getting criticism for making unfalsifiable claims, according to the New York magazine article. He is unfazed. He says lab work ultimately will prove him right or wrong. He also notes science often dismisses that which it doesn’t understand. Levin told the magazine Isaac Newton considered his most important discoveries were in the field of alchemy. History ignored such “cuckoo” ideas and remembered only Newton’s contributions to physics.
Written by Tom Zolper
Edited by Anders Bolling
