Defining Life: A Conversation

Karina Kofman; Christoph Adami; František Baluška; Joshua Bongard; Douglas Brash; Paco Calvo; Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic; Pranab Das; Chris Fields; Tom Froese; Pier Luigi Gentili; Georgi Yordanov Georgiev; Scott F. Gilbert; Timothy N. W. Jackson; Stuart Kauffman; Nick Lane; Perry Marshall; Dan McShea; William Miller; Stuart Newman; Alistair Nunn; Theodore P. Pavlic; Martin Picard; William Ratcliff; Arthur Reber; James Shapiro; Aaron Sloman; Ricard Solé; Carlos Sonnenschein; Susan Stepney; Richard Watson; Olaf Witkowski; Michael Levin

doi:10.13133/2532-5876/19492

Authors

Karina Kofman Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto
Christoph Adami Michigan State University, Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology, Department of Physics and Astronomy
František Baluška Former Group Leader, IZMB, University of Bonn https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8763-7861
Joshua Bongard Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405
Douglas Brash Departments of Therapeutic Radiology and Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8040
Paco Calvo Minimal Intelligence Laboratory (MINTLab), University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic Chalmers University of Technology and Mälardalen University, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9881-400X
Pranab Das Professor of Physics Emeritus, Senior Fellow, Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), UCLA
Chris Fields Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University Caunes Minervois, France Mesilla, NM
Tom Froese Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9899-5274
Pier Luigi Gentili Department of Chemistry, Biology, and Biotechnology, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06123 Perugia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1092-9190
Georgi Yordanov Georgiev Assumption University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609
Scott F. Gilbert Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5071-8876
Timothy N. W. Jackson Australian Venom Research Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, University of Melbourne
Stuart Kauffman The Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98109-5263
Nick Lane Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5433-3973
Perry Marshall Evolution 2.0, 805 Lake Street #295, Oak Park IL
Dan McShea Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27705
William Miller Bioverse Foundation, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Stuart Newman Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595
Alistair Nunn Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, and The Guy Foundation, Dorset
Theodore P. Pavlic School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7073-6932
Martin Picard Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY 10032
William Ratcliff School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Arthur Reber Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
James Shapiro rofessor emeritus, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago
Aaron Sloman University of Birmingham
Ricard Solé CREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dr Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona and Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Carlos Sonnenschein Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston MA 0211 and Centre Cavailles. ENS. Paris 75005 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3475-6423
Susan Stepney Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO10 5DD https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3146-5401
Richard Watson Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2521-8255
Olaf Witkowski Cross Compass Ltd. Cross Labs and University of Tokyo College of Arts and Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2101-2428
Michael Levin Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7292-8084

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13133/2532-5876/19492

Abstract

Life is one of the most fascinating features of the physical world. Despite centuries of scientific study, experts still disagree about the definition, and even the possibility or utility of a definition, of this field. In a recent paper, we used AI to analyze the conceptual space formed by definitions of life given by a select set of modern workers in the life sciences and related fields. However, some of the most interesting material emerged as real-time conversations among those polled. In order to ensure that these ideas are not lost to the peer-reviewed scientific record, we here provide a minimally-edited (largely verbatim) transcript of the email chain among leading thinkers, containing numerous clarifications, disagreements, and challenges that enrich the topic of Life. It is our hope that this case study serves as an example for future papers, since the exchange of ideas among scientists is at least as interesting and valuable as formal scientific manuscripts written from a single perspective.

Author Biographies

Karina Kofman, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto

Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) Student at University of Toronto | Faculty of Science Gold Medal at York University

Christoph Adami, Michigan State University, Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Dr. Adami is Professor for Microbiology and Molecular Genetics & Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. As a computational biologist, Dr. Adami’s main focus is Darwinian evolution, which he studies theoretically, experimentally, and computationally, at different levels of organization (from simple molecules to brains). He has pioneered the application of methods from information theory to the study of evolution, and designed the “Avida” system that launched the use of digital life (mutating and adapting computer viruses living in a controlled computer environment) as a tool for investigating basic questions in evolutionary biology. He was also a Principal Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he conducted research into the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information theory. Dr. Adami earned a BS in physics and mathematics and a Diplom in theoretical physics from the University of Bonn (Germany) and MA and PhD degrees in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He wrote the textbook “Introduction to Artificial Life” (Springer, 1998) and is the recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011 and a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Artificial Life (ISAL) in 2019.

František Baluška, Former Group Leader, IZMB, University of Bonn

Retired Prof. František Baluška was Group Leader at the IZMB, University of Bonn. Besides expertise on the cytoskeleton and endocytosis, he is expert on the plant root apex biology. He discovered root apex trandition zone and has been actively participating in integration of plant cell biology, plant physiology, plant sensory biology and plant cognition in fostering the emerging field of plant neurobiology. He is also involved in theoretical studies on eukaryotic cell evolution and cellular sentience.

Joshua Bongard, Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405

Professor Josh Bongard's research centers on evolutionary robotics, evolutionary computation and physical simulation. He runs the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory, whose work focuses on the role that morphology and evolution play in cognition.

In 2007, he was awarded a prestigious Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship and was named one of MIT Technology Review's top 35 young innovators under 35. In 2010 he was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by Barack Obama at a White House ceremony.

To find out more about Dr. Bongard's work, peruse his website, see this interview with Josh, or read his book, How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence. Most recently, Josh was featured in an episode, "Good Robot," of Vermont Public Television's Emerging Science program.

For more information, visit Dr. Bongard's website.

Douglas Brash, Departments of Therapeutic Radiology and Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8040

Dr. Brash received his BS in Engineering Physics from the University of Illinois, minoring in Physiological Psychology. After receiving a PhD in Biophysics, he began elucidating the steps leading from ultraviolet light photons to human skin cancer. As a postdoc at Harvard, he found that UV-induced mutation hotspots in E. coli occur at the same gene positions as (6-4) photoproducts and cyclobutane dimers: UV wasn't elevating random genomic instability. At the National Cancer Institute, he proved these photoproducts were mutagenic. Upon moving to Yale, his lab used the distinctive UV mutation pattern to identify genes mutated by sunlight in causing skin cancer: p53 in squamous cell carcinoma and its actinic keratosis precursor, and p53 and PTCH in basal cell carcinoma. They then showed p53 to be a key element of UV-induced apoptosis, preventing damaged cells from becoming mutants. Because the multiple-genetic-hit model of cancer predicts that our bodies harbor cells mutated in just one or another of the genes needed for cancer, the lab then sought p53-mutant cells in normal skin. These cells were not only present but were already proliferating as clones and were astonishingly common – many people carry 60,000 clones, occupying almost 5% of their epidermis. Switching to mice revealed that clonal expansion is driven by physiology, not by adding mutations. One mechanism is the mutant's resistance to UV-induced apoptosis. Another is UV's ability to tilt a clone's balance of progenitor cells and differentiating cells toward self-renewal of the progenitors. Recently the lab discovered that chemical excitation of electrons, "chemiexcitation", is a new mode of disease that uses the pigment melanin to create UV-like carcinogenic lesions even after UV exposure has ended. These results contribute to what is perhaps the best picture available of how a human carcinogen works. Another current project is identifying UV-hypersensitive genome regions for use as "genomic dosimeters" to assess a person's past sun exposure and future skin cancer risk.

Paco Calvo, Minimal Intelligence Laboratory (MINTLab), University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain

Paco Calvo is a renowned cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, known for his groundbreaking research in the field of plant cognition and intelligence. He is a professor at the University of Murcia in Spain, where he leads the Minimal Intelligence Lab (MINT Lab), focusing on the study of minimal cognition in plants. Calvo’s interdisciplinary work combines insights from biology, philosophy, and cognitive science to explore the fascinating world of plant behavior, decision-making, and problem-solving. By investigating the complex interactions and adaptive responses exhibited by plants, Paco Calvo has significantly contributed to our understanding of cognition beyond the animal kingdom, challenging conventional perspectives on intelligence and mental capacities.

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Chalmers University of Technology and Mälardalen University, Sweden

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic is a Professor Emerita in Interaction Design at Chalmers University of Technology and a Senior Professor in Computer Science at Mälardalen University. She holds PhD degrees in Physics and Computer Science. Her current research is in Morphological computing and the connection between computation, information, and cognition via interacting agents on different levels of organization - from physics to biology and cognition, to morphogenetic and biomimetic computational design. Dodig-Crnkovic is a member of the IT Faculty Board, Chalmers AI Ethics Committee, European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics EUGAIN, and the Inclusion4EU project.

Pranab Das, Professor of Physics Emeritus, Senior Fellow, Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), UCLA

Pranab Das, professor of physics emeritus, will be a senior fellow at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) at UCLA this fall. IPAM is one of six centers funded by the National Science Foundation to advance American and global excellence in math and related fields.

As described by the NSF, “institute activities help focus the attention of some of the best mathematical minds on problems of particular importance and timeliness.”

IPAM hosts twice-annual programs chosen on a competitive basis that invite some 40-50 leading scientists to residence. Das and his colleagues will study the mathematics of intelligence. He will also help convene a one-week workshop in November focused specifically on collective intelligence (including collective behaviors of humans, non-human animals, and machines). Further information can be found here.

This fellowship represents a continuation of eight years of Das’ work supporting the study of diverse forms of intelligence including service as principal advisor on a $50 million grants program, summer convenings and ongoing international collaborations. Among the most recent of these is an exploration of the application of Buddhist concepts of care and mindfulness to artificial intelligence in collaboration with researchers in Nepal, Bhutan and Japan.

Chris Fields, Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University Caunes Minervois, France Mesilla, NM

Dr. Christopher A. (Chris) Fields received his B.S. in Physics (1977) from Louisiana State University and his Ph.D. in Philosophy (1985) from the University of Colorado. He is a biophysicist who has collaborated with Dr. Michael Levin and other members of the Allen Discovery Center since 2014. He is primarily interested in developing scale-free models, based on quantum information theory and abstract model of computation, that characterize the abilities of living systems to recognize objects in their environments, localize them in space and time, and interact with them as persistent individuals.

Tom Froese, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa

Tom Froese is Associate Professor at OIST and head of the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit (ECSU). His research develops the embodied and enactive tradition of cognitive science and has produced a novel theoretical framework "irruption theory" for how the subjective mind makes a difference to the living body (Froese, 2026). At ECSU, this framework anchors a linked research program spanning philosophy of mind, human-subject experimentation, computational modeling, and cross-scale empirical analysis.

The central claim of irruption theory is simple but consequential. Because the subjective mind is not reducible to physiology, its involvement can only manifest, from the perspective of physiological inertia, as an external noise term: an irruption of divergent dynamics. This reframes a longstanding tension in embodied cognitive science: the expectation that subjective involvement should show up as measurable benefit in brain and behavior, where experiments often reveal the opposite, a disordering effect. Irruption theory proposes that this disordering is exactly the signature we should expect, and recasts the problem of mental causation as a question about how living systems self-organize despite, and through, such irruptions.

Pier Luigi Gentili, Department of Chemistry, Biology, and Biotechnology, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06123 Perugia

nanimate matter is driven by force fields, whereas living beings are information-encoding, gathering, and utilizing systems. My leading questions are:

“How was it possible that from an inanimate world, devoid of agents able to process information, matter self-organized in forms able to make decisions?”

“What biological intelligence competencies can be mimicked through inanimate chemical systems?”

"How far can we go in developing Chemical Artificial Intelligence”?

For the development of the Chemical Artificial Intelligent, I rely upon the theory and tools of Natural Computing. In particular, I am proposing methods to process Fuzzy logic by molecules, and I am tracing new paths in the field of Neuromorphic Engineering and Quantum AI.

Moreover, I am profoundly convinced that for a better comprehension of Complexity, a multicultural dialogue is mandatory. Science should dialogue with Philosophy, Religions and Arts.

Georgi Yordanov Georgiev, Assumption University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

A Professor of Physics at Assumption University and an Affiliate Professor of Physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609.
The main area of interest is the self-organization of Complex Systems, giving rise to all structures and systems that exist in the Universe.
Ph.D. and M.S. in Physics Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA, 2002.
M.S. Physics and Chemistry, Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1993

Scott F. Gilbert, Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081

Howard A. Schneiderman '48 Professor Emeritus in Biology, Professor Gilbert focuses on how evolutionary novelty is created by developmental changes; how the turtle got its shell through changes in cell signaling and cell migration; how symbiosis takes place during normal development.

Timothy N. W. Jackson, Australian Venom Research Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, University of Melbourne

Co-Head, Australian Venom Research Unit, University of Melbourne

Stuart Kauffman, The Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98109-5263

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Kauffman

Nick Lane, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London

I am Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London, and Director of the UCL Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution (CLOE). I was a founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research. My research is about how energy flow has shaped evolution from the origin of life to the emergence of complex traits such as sex, death and consciousness. I have published more than 130 papers in journals including Nature, Science, Cell and PNAS. I am best known for my five books on energy and evolution, including most recently Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death, which Science described as “A thrilling tour… Masterful.” I have received several awards for my work, including the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books, the 2015 Biochemical Society Award and the 2016 Royal Society Faraday Prize. Bill Gates calls me “One of my favourite science writers”.

Perry Marshall, Evolution 2.0, 805 Lake Street #295, Oak Park IL

Perry Marshall founded the Evolution 2.0 Prize, staffed by judges from Harvard, Oxford and MIT. He aims to solve the #1 mystery in Artificial Intelligence and the origin of life itself. He is a published scientist.

He is endorsed in FORBES and INC Magazine and is one of the most expensive business consultants in the world. Clients in 300 industries value his capacity to integrate sales, technology, art and psychology.

His reinvention of the Pareto Principle is published in Harvard Business Review, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs at the California Institute of Technology uses his 80/20 Curve as a productivity tool.

His Google AdWords book laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry. He's served as an expert witness for search advertising litigation.

He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives with his family in Chicago.

He co-founded the Cancer & Evolution Symposium which is now a Working Group of American Association of Cancer Research.

https://perrymarshall.info/

Dan McShea, Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27705

Daniel W. (Dan) McShea's main research interest is hierarchy theory, especially the causal relationship between higher-level wholes and their components (Spencer, Simon, Campbell, Salthe, Wimsatt). In biology, for example, we might want to know how large-scale processes within a multicellular organism act to control the smaller-scale processes within its component cells. Or, in the area of my current research, how do the emotions in mammals (and perhaps other animals) act to initiate and control conscious thought and behavior? It seems clear from the philosophical work of Hume (A Treatise of Human Nature) that the preferencing or valuing that motivates or drives conscious thought and behavior, and in particular conscious decision-making, must arise from the emotions. This is true because the only alternative, reason (in the sense of pure rationality), is value-neutral, and utterly incapable of motivating anything. As Hume put it, "Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them."

But what is the nature of the causal process by which emotion drives thought and behavior? I argue that it is a form of downward causation, of a sort that occurs in many hierarchical systems. Consider a neutrally buoyant balloon filled with gas and hanging in a room. If the balloon as a whole is moved -- say 2 inches to the left -- this large-scale movement causes all of the gas molecules within it (as well as the molecules in the plastic skin of the balloon) to move, on average, 2 inches to the left. A similar sort of top-down causation occurs, it seems, in the emotion-behavior and emotion-thought relationship. The evidence is that these relationships seem to follow certain key principles of hierarchy theory. 1. Rates. Lower levels move quickly relative to the higher level. The gas molecules in a balloon typically move quickly relative to the balloon as a whole. Likewise, thought and behavior are fast relative to change in emotional state. 2. Causal asymmetry. Lower-level units cannot, as individuals, much affect the higher level. A single gas molecule cannot much affect a whole balloon. Likewise, individual thoughts and behaviors ordinarily do not much affect an emotion. Rather, an emotion hovers more or less unchanging, in the background, while thoughts and behaviors aimed at satisfying that emotion play out. 3. Vagueness. Lower-level units do not directly interact with higher levels and therefore "perceive" them only "vaguely." Thus, thoughts and behaviors are clear and distinct, but we perceive our emotions only vaguely. 4. Downward causation. Higher levels exert their causal influence on lower-level units via boundary conditions, and therefore higher-level control is not precise, with the result that lower-level units have considerable freedom. Consistent with this, in two similar higher-level systems, the sequence of behaviors of lower-level units could be very different. The movements of individual gas molecules in two very similar balloons will be very different. Likewise, the same emotion, the same motivation, in two different people is consistent with their thinking and behaving very differently. (Although presumably some very general similarities can be found. To the extent that the two share the same emotion, the goals they are pursuing are similar. Analogously, the movements of the gas molecules in the balloon share a general similarity, in that they all move two inches to the left on average.)

My past work has been mainly on large-scale evolutionary trends, that is, trends that include a number of higher taxa and that span a large portion of the history of life. Features that have been said to show such trends include complexity, size, fitness, and others. In my research, I worked mainly on developing operational measures of these features, devising methods for testing empirically whether trends have occurred, and studying the causes and correlates of trends. Most of this work so far has been on trends in complexity. In a recent book (Biology’s First Law 2010) with the philosopher Robert Brandon, we argue that complexity change in evolution is partly governed by what we call the Zero-Force Evolutionary Law (ZFEL). The law says that in the absence of selection and constraint, complexity – in the sense of differentiation among parts – will tend to increase. Further, we argue, even when forces and constraints are present, a tendency for complexity to increase is always present. The rationale is simply that in the absence of selection or constraint, the parts of an organism will tend spontaneously to accumulate variation, and therefore to become more different from each other. Thus, for example, in a multicellular organism, in the absence of selection and constraint, the degree of differentiation among cells should increase, leading eventually to an increase in the number of cell types. As we argue in the book, the law applies at all hierarchical levels (molecules, organelles, cells, etc.). It also applies above the level of the organism, to differences among individuals in populations, and to differences among species and among higher taxa. In other words, the ZFEL says that diversity also tends spontaneously to increase. The ZFEL is universal, applying to all evolutionary lineages, at all times, in all places, everywhere life occurs. A consequence is that any complete evolutionary explanation for change in complexity or diversity will necessarily include the ZFEL as one component.

Other interests include the philosophy of biology generally. (See my textbook coauthored with philosopher Alex Rosenberg, Philosophy Of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction 2009.) More specifically: 1. The connections among the various evolutionary forces acting on animal form -- functional, formal, and phylogenetic. 2. Animal psychology generally. 3. The relationship between morality and human nature.

William Miller, Bioverse Foundation, Paradise Valley, Arizona

Dr. Miller is an internationally known evolutionary biologist, medical doctor, and author of seven science books. He has contributed over three dozen peer-reviewed, highly influential academic articles on evolutionary biology. Dr. Miller became fascinated by evolution through a chance encounter with Sue, the startling T-Rex skeleton housed in the magnificent rotunda of the Chicago Field Museum. Since then, Dr. Miller has become a leading expert in the field of evolutionary biology, developing Cognition-Based Evolution as a novel peer-accepted alternative to conventional evolutionary theory. His latest book, Bioverse: How the Cellular World Contains the Secrets to Life’s Biggest Questions, is a popular science book for general readers. A docuseries based on its illuminating ideas is in development.

Dr. Miller had been in academic and private medical practice for over 30 years. His experiences and observations about patterns of disease led to a conviction that the dominant narratives of disease causation and evolutionary development were insufficient. The result is a discerning body of work in evolutionary biology and cellular cognition. As an expert on the intimate interrelationships between our cells and our microbiome, he has contributed over 100 on-line articles and blog posts and given over 100 media interviews. He currently consults in the field of the microbiome and is a Senior Fellow at the Bioverse Foundation.

Dr. Miller is a graduate of Northwestern University in Biology, Northwestern Medical School, and is a member of the medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha. Besides his medical work, he has been painting in oils since his teens. He now paints figurative works and portraits in his studio in Phoenix, Arizona and his figurative work is featured at Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City.

Stuart Newman, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595

Stuart Alan Newman (born April 4, 1945 in New York City) is a professor of cell and molecular physiology at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, United States. His research centers around three program areas: cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate limb development, physical mechanisms of morphogenesis, and mechanisms of morphological evolution. He also writes about social and cultural aspects of biological research and technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Newman

Alistair Nunn, Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, and The Guy Foundation, Dorset

I am an active theoretician who has worked in academia, the pharmaceutical industry, medical communications, and who now works in a cross-over position between academia and a science foundation. I am widely read, having worked on multiple indications and diseases, in particular cancer, epilepsy, the metabolic syndrome dyslipidaemia, diabetes, and more recently, virology. I have capitalised on this by developing theories based on evolutionary, quantum and thermodynamic principles to explain not only how natural products may be working, but also a possible way of looking at the origins of life and ageing and how this is modulated by lifestyle, and why, for instance, physical activity plays a pivotal role in maintaining optimal health. Of late, I have applied my understanding of mitochondrial function to help explain the pathophysiology of SARs-CoV-2 infection, as well as the emerging pathophenotype that astronauts experience, and the possibility, that like long COVID, they could be experiencing an accelerated ageing syndrome. This background has enabled me to collaborate and discuss ideas with many leading scientists in a variety of disciplines, ranging from the origins of life, mitochondrial function, electromagnetic field- based regeneration, optimal health and ageing, pharmaceuticals as well as quantum biology and its applications, for instance, in how it might help in understanding and treating cancer.

Theodore P. Pavlic, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281

Pavlic leads the Bringing Ecology and Engineering Together (BEET) lab at Arizona State University (ASU). The laboratory takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how natural and artificial complex adaptive systems perceive their environment and make effective decisions autonomously. There is equal focus in the SEADS lab on discovery and scientific inference as there is on technological design and engineering. Lab members from a variety of different backgrounds: (a) conduct empirical lab and field behavioral research with living systems (e.g., ant colonies); (b) develop mathematical (theoretical) models of natural cognitive phenomena; (c) design and implement beyond state-of-the-art computational tools for understanding socio-ecological systems; and (d) develop bio-inspired distributed algorithms for decentralized control of engineered systems in the built environment. Methods that are particularly well represented in the SEADS lab come from optimization, distributed algorithms, artificial intelligence/machine learning, behavioral ecology, cognitive psychology, and bio-inspired algorithmic design. Target application areas include collective intelligence, the built environment, multi-robot systems, and human–computer augmented intelligence.

Martin Picard, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY 10032

Martin Picard, PhD received his BSc Honours in neuroimmunology, and PhD in mitochondrial biology of aging at McGill University. He then moved to the University of Pennsylvania for a postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine with Doug Wallace. There, he worked on mitochondria-mitochondria interactions, mitochondrial reprogramming of the nuclear (epi)genome, and mitochondrial stress pathophysiology along with Bruce McEwen at the Rockefeller University. He joined the faculty of Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in 2015.

At CUIMC, Dr. Picard directs the Mitochondrial Psychobiology Group, which investigates organelle-to-organism communication linking the human experience with molecular and energetic processes inside mitochondria. His laboratory has identified novel membrane structures for mitochondrial communication in rare mitochondrial diseases, showed that cell-free mitochondrial DNA (cf-mtDNA) is a psychological stress-inducible molecule detectable in blood and saliva, and developed a mitochondrial health index (MHI) to study the mind-mitochondria connection in immune cells and brain tissue. His group also has established that human hair greying is reversible and linked to life stress, developed a longitudinal cellular lifespan model that recapitulates trajectories of human epigenetic aging and allostatic load in vitro, and built MitoBrainMap v1.0—the first systematic map of mitochondria in the human brain. Dr. Picard’s translational research program has contributed to defining the diversity of mitochondria across the brain and body, and to longitudinally examining the link between stress, energy expenditure, and the rate of aging at the cellular level.

Martin’s life is dedicated to research, innovation, and communication in service of empowering individuals to achieve their full health potential. Through his research at CUIMC, he has bridged mitochondrial biology, bioenergetics, and aging science with psychosocial sciences, contemplative practices, and mitochondrial medicine, crafting a rigorous interdisciplinary research program. Building on the field of mitochondrial psychobiology he has pioneered, Martin now leads the emerging discipline of Healing Science. He is the author of the forthcoming book ENERGY (2027) and founder of the Energy and Healing Institute (EHI). Partnering with visionary leaders and domain experts, he develops large-scale, socio-scientific initiatives that drive cultural and scientific transformation toward a healthier, more compassionate, sustainable world.

His research on the link between energy, stress, aging, and health has been covered in The New York Times, Scientific American, The New Yorker, and on TEDx.

Laboratory website: https://www.picardlab.org(link is external and opens in a new window)

General website: https://www.martinpicard.energy(link is external and opens in a new window)

William Ratcliff, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Ph.D. Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota. 2010 , B.S. Plant Biology, UC Davis. 2004, Notable awards: Packard Fellow (2016); named one of Popular Science's "Brilliant 10" in 2016, Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award (2018), Sigma Xi Best Paper Award (2019), NSF CAREER Award (2019) Research Interests: Major transitions in evolution (mainly multicellularity). Spatial dynamics of microbial social interactions. Bet hedging. Life cycle evolution. Origin of multicellular development. Overview:

The transition to multicellularity was critical for the evolution of of large, complex organisms. However, little is known about how early multicellular organisms arise from unicellular ancestors, or how these relatively simple clusters of cells evolve greater complexity. We address both of these issues using experimental evolution, creating new multicellular life in a test tube. Below are examples of experimentally-evolved multicellular yeast and algae which started the experiment as single-celled microbes.

Using these model systems (and a good bit of mathematical / computational modeling), my lab explores the origin of multicellular development, cellular division of labor, and mechanisms to prevent cell-level evolution from eroding multicellular complexity.

Major transitions in evolution (e.g. multicellularity) are a special case of a more general phenomenon: social evolution. Through collaborations with Brian Hammer (GT Biology), Peter Yunker (GT Physics), and Joshua Weitz (GT Biology), our group examines the spatial dynamics of microbial ecology and evolution.

Arthur Reber, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Arthur S. Reber (March 11, 1940 – September 2, 2025) was an American cognitive psychologist. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and a Fulbright Fellow. He is known for introducing the concept of implicit learning and for using basic principles of evolutionary biology to show how implicit or unconscious cognitive functions differ in fundamental ways from those carried out consciously.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_S._Reber

James Shapiro, rofessor emeritus, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Chicago
Gordon Center for Integrative Science W123B
979 E. 57th Street, Chicago, Ill. 60637
312-702-1625/Fax 312-947-9345/Email jsha@uchicago.edu

Short biography:

James A. Shapiro is Professor of Microbiology in The Department Of Biochemistry And Molecular Biology at the University Of Chicago. He received his B.A. in English Literature from Harvard in 1964 and his Ph.D. in Genetics from Cambridge University in 1968 under Prof. W. Hayes, FRS. After postdoctoral fellowships at Institut Pasteur with Prof. Francois Jacob (1967-1968) and Harvard Medical School with Prof. Jonathan Beckwith (1968-1970), he served as Invited Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Havana, Cuba (1970-1972). At the University of Chicago since 1973, he was Darwin Prize Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh (1993). In 2001, he received an O.B.E. from Queen Elizabeth for services to the Marshall Scholarship Program. He is a founding member of the web site, www.TheThirdWayofEvolution.com, intended to make the public aware of scientific alternatives to both Intelligent Design and Neo-Darwinism. He has published pioneering books on mobile genetic elements, natural genetic engineering, bacterial multicellularity, and read-write genome evolution, including:

• Bukhari, A.I., J.A. Shapiro, and S.L. Adhya (eds.) 1977. DNA Insertion Elements, Plasmids and Episomes, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

• Shapiro, J.A. (ed.) 1983. Mobile Genetic Elements, Academic Press.

• Shapiro, J.A. and M. Dworkin (eds.). 1997. Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms, Oxford University Press.
• Shapiro, J.A. 2011. Evolution: A View from the 21st Century. FT Press Science (ISBN-10: 0-13-278093-3; ISBN-13: 978- 0-13-278093-3)

Aaron Sloman, University of Birmingham

Aaron Sloman is an Honorary Professor of AI and Cognitive Science in the School of Computer Science. Professor Sloman retired in 2002 but is still doing full time research, linking to a variety of disciplines. Please follow the link below to find out more about Professor Sloman's work:

Professor Sloman's - personal homepage.

Ricard Solé, CREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dr Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona and Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico

I am ICREA research professor (the Catalan Institute for research and Advanced Studies) currently working at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra , where I'm the head of the COMPLEX SYSTEMS LAB located at the PRBB. I teach courses on Biomathematics, principles of biological design and biocomputation. I completed degrees in both Physics and Biology at the University of Barcelona and received my PhD in Physics at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. I am also External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute (New Mexico, USA), external faculty of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF, member of the Council of the European Complex Systems Society and member of the editorial board of PLoS ONE. I have received a European Research Council Advanced Grant (ERC 2012).

One of my main research interests is understanding the possible presence of universal patterns of organization in complex systems, from prebiotic replicators, cancer, multicellularity, viruses, protocells or language to evolved artificial objects. Key questions are how robust structures develop, how information is incorporated into these structures and how computation emerges. We use both theoretical and experimental approximations based on synthetic biology. I love Barcelona (best city in the world). I have the pleasure of sharing my research with a team of great (and a bit crazy) people.

Research lines

Evolution of complex networks
Models of large-scale chemical reaction networks
Protocell modelling, synthesis and evolution
Large-scale regulatory networks
Bio-inspired engineering
Evolution of morphogenesis in gene network models
Instability and heterogeneity in cancer
Modelling cancer cells
Theoretical models of genomic instability in tumor progression
Quasi-neutral of network organization

Carlos Sonnenschein, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston MA 0211 and Centre Cavailles. ENS. Paris 75005

Carlos Sonnenschein currently works at the INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY & PATHOBIOLOGY, Tufts University. Carlos does research in Oncology, Cell Biology, Cancer Research and Theoretical Biology. Their current project is 'Modeling mammary organogenesis'.

Disciplines
Oncology

Cell Biology

Cancer Research

Endocrinology

Susan Stepney, Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO10 5DD

Interests
Non-standard computing: artificial life, in materio computing, complex systems.

Qualifications
MA MMath PhD (Cantab)

Career
2024-present: Professor Emerita, University of York
2002-2024: Professor of Computer Science, University of York
1997-2002: Visiting Professor, University of York
1989-2002: Consultant, Logica UK Ltd
1984-1989: Research Scientist, GEC Marconi Research Centre
1983-1984: SERC Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Stepney

Richard Watson, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ

Richard Watson is an Associate Professor in the natural systems research group at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science. He received his BA in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex in 1990 and then worked in industry for about five years. Returning to academia, he chose Sussex again for an MSc in knowledge-based systems, where he was introduced to evolutionary modeling. His PhD in computer science at Brandeis University (2002) resulted in 22 publications and a dissertation addressing the algorithmic concepts underlying the major transitions in evolution. A postdoctoral position at Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology provided training to complement his computer science background. He now has over 50 journal and conference publications on topics spanning artificial life, robotics, evolutionary computation, population genetics, neural networks and computational biology. At Southampton, he's building his research programme and leading preparation of a new MSc in complexity science. He is the author of Compositional Evolution: The Impact of Sex, Symbiosis, and Modularity on the Gradualist Framework of Evolution (MIT Press, 2006).

Olaf Witkowski, Cross Compass Ltd. Cross Labs and University of Tokyo College of Arts and Sciences

Olaf Witkowski is an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and research leader based in Kyoto, Japan. He is the Founder and Chief Scientist of Cognisee, the Founding Director of Cross Labs, a research institute devoted to intelligence science, artificial life, and the future of human-machine cognition; the President of the International Society for Artificial Life; and a Board Director at Cross Compass in Tokyo. His work sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, artificial life, collective intelligence, hybrid computing, AI ethics, and the long-range future of cognition across biological, artificial, and hybrid substrates.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Witkowski has built and led research and innovation efforts across Europe, the United States, and Japan. He has founded and scaled six deep-tech ventures across three continents and helped secure more than $38 million in research funding for programs spanning AI, biocomputation, consciousness, ethics, and diverse intelligences. His academic and research affiliations have included MIT CSAIL, the University of Tokyo, the Earth Life Science Institute at the Institute of Science Tokyo (formerly Tokyo Institute of Technology), and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Tokyo in 2015 under Takashi Ikegami, following earlier work in computer science, engineering, and ethno-cryptography connected to the Catholic University of Louvain and MIT’s Khipu Research Group.

At Cross Labs, which he founded in Kyoto in 2019, Dr. Witkowski has led interdisciplinary research programs in AI, artificial life, cognitive neuroscience, and diverse intelligences, while building roadmaps, partnerships, public programs, and applied pathways that connect fundamental science to real-world systems. At ISAL, where he has served on the Board since 2019, as Vice President from 2022 to 2023, and as President since 2023, he helps lead an international field spanning complex systems, evolutionary computation, origins of life, robotics, synthetic biology, philosophy, education, and art. Across these roles, he has focused not only on research itself but also on the institutions, narratives, and communities needed to shape responsible long-term progress in intelligence science.

Dr. Witkowski has worked extensively across academia and industry. He has taught, mentored, or held external faculty roles through the University of Tokyo, Ritsumeikan University, Hokkaido University, Chiba Institute of Technology, and the Earth Life Science Institute. Earlier in his career, he was a visiting scholar at IAS Princeton and a founding member and research architect of YHouse in New York. On the industrial side, he built the first Twitter search engine in 2007 and later helped deliver advanced AI systems and long-horizon research strategy with major Japanese technology companies including Epson, Renesas, Yaskawa, and Kaga.

His scholarship spans artificial life, open-ended evolution, swarm intelligence, autopoiesis, hybrid life, origins of life, ethics of artificial life, human-AI collaboration, and emerging architectures for collective intelligence. He has published over 100 scientific works, with over 1,000 citations, an h-index of 18, an i10-index of 27, and an Erdős number of 4. His publications include contributions in venues and journals such as NeurIPS, Artificial Life, Biosystems, WIREs Cognitive Science, Astrobiology, PLOS ONE, Frontiers, CHI, IEEE outlets, and Springer volumes. His work has received multiple best paper awards as well as director-level recognition at the Earth Life Science Institute, reflecting a career that moves fluidly between theoretical depth, scientific originality, and technological translation.

A recurring thread through Dr. Witkowski’s career has been the question of how knowledge, agency, and meaning can persist and travel across radically different minds, bodies, and media. This has led him from embodied swarms and artificial chemistries, to questions of consciousness and ethics, to the design of infrastructures for future human-machine institutions. Today, that trajectory converges in Cognisee, where he is helping build Artificial Collective Intelligence: systems for making tacit expertise, institutional memory, and governed knowledge computable at scale. The broader aim of this work is to complement current language-model paradigms with deeper forms of continuity, judgment, and collective learning—what might be called wisdom-driven AI infrastructure.

He has also co-founded the Artificial Life Institute in Kyoto, the Thirdware Consortium in Tokyo, and the Center for the Study of Apparent Selves in Kathmandu, reflecting a career that bridges science, philosophy, entrepreneurship, and public imagination. Across research, teaching, institution building, and venture creation, Olaf Witkowski’s work is animated by a single challenge: understanding intelligence broadly enough to help build technologies worthy of it.

Michael Levin, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115

Michael Levin is an American developmental and synthetic biologist. He a professor of biomedical engineering and the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University, where he is the director of the Allen Discovery Center and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. He is also co-director of the Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms with Josh Bongard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Levin_(biologist)