Platonic Space and Biology: understanding evolved, engineered, and hybrid embodied minds
Michael Levin · Tufts University · Developmental & synthetic biology
Mapping to the Nexus
Levin argues that biological systems exploit mathematical "free lunches," acting as physical pointers that access a non-physical space of patterns. This frames basal cognition and the morphogenetic code not as emergent illusions of DNA, but as fundamental forms downloaded by physical substrates — empirically demonstrated by the spontaneous kinematic replication and problem-solving capacities of synthetic Xenobots.