{"id":231012,"date":"2026-02-10T10:19:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/brave-new-biology-intelligence-trumps-dna-with-dr-michael-levin-and-dr-john-vervaeke"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:19:38","slug":"brave-new-biology-intelligence-trumps-dna-with-dr-michael-levin-and-dr-john-vervaeke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/brave-new-biology-intelligence-trumps-dna-with-dr-michael-levin-and-dr-john-vervaeke","title":{"rendered":"Brave New Biology: Intelligence Trumps DNA \u2014 with Dr. Michael Levin and Dr. John Vervaeke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iwOJ9PWcPmo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Michael Levin is a professor in the Department of Biology at Tufts University and an associate faculty member at the Wyss Institute at Harvard. He directs the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, where his team integrates biophysics, computational modeling, and behavioral science to study how cellular collectives make decisions during embryogenesis, regeneration, and cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Levin\u2019s research centers on diverse forms of intelligence and unconventional embodied minds, bridging conceptual theory, experimental biology, and translational work aimed at regenerative medicine. His lab also pioneers efforts in artificial intelligence and the bioengineering of novel living machines.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about Dr. Michael Levin\u2019s work: <a href=\"https:\/\/drmichaellevin.org\/\">https:\/\/drmichaellevin.org\/<\/a><br \/> X: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drmichaellevin\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/drmichaellevin<\/a>.<br \/> YouTube: \u202a<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drmichaellevin\">@drmichaellevin<\/a>\u202c<\/p>\n<p>John Vervaeke\u2019s YouTube channel: \u202a<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnvervaeke\">@johnvervaeke<\/a>\u202c<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcd6 Let\u2019s take our stories back. Check out our latest book in the Tales for Now and Ever series, Rapunzel and the Evil Witch: <a href=\"https:\/\/rapunzelbook.com\/\">https:\/\/rapunzelbook.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Join Fr. Stephen De Young in his Jubilees and the Nephilim course, now streaming live on The Symbolic World: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesymbolicworld.com\/cour\">https:\/\/www.thesymbolicworld.com\/cour<\/a>\u2026 00:00 \u2014 Coming up 01:14 \u2014 Intro music 01:40 \u2014 Introduction 02:23 \u2014 What Michael does 06:19 \u2014 Example experiments 07:51 \u2014 Memories outside the brain 12:46 \u2014 Terminology: memory 13:59 \u2014 Communicate to biological cells 15:54 \u2014 Limitations? 17:39 \u2014 Platonic patterns 34:06 \u2014 Incarnation and constraints 39:26 \u2014 Causes 49:28 \u2014 New beings in new spaces 52:25 \u2014 What the Enlightenment dismissed 55:32 \u2014 Molecular medicine 57:36 \u2014 Subtle bodies 01:00:45 \u2014 Ethics 01:03:37 \u2014 Medical and meaning applications 01:11:42 \u2014 Frightening 01:14:31 \u2014 Against the status quo 01:19:03 \u2014 Should we dabble in this technology? \ud83d\udcbb Website and blog: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesymbolicworld.com\">http:\/\/www.thesymbolicworld.com<\/a> \ud83d\udd17 Linktree: <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/jonathanpageau\">https:\/\/linktr.ee\/jonathanpageau<\/a> \ud83d\udd12 BECOME A PATRON: <a href=\"https:\/\/thesymbolicworld.com\/subscribe\">https:\/\/thesymbolicworld.com\/subscribe<\/a> Our website designers: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resonancehq.io\/\">https:\/\/www.resonancehq.io\/<\/a> My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson: <a href=\"https:\/\/matthewwilkinson.net\/\">https:\/\/matthewwilkinson.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/brave-new-biology-intelligence-trumps-dna-with-dr-michael-levin-and-dr-john-vervaeke\">Continue reading \u201cBrave New Biology: Intelligence Trumps DNA \u2014 with Dr. Michael Levin and Dr. John Vervaeke\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Michael Levin is a professor in the Department of Biology at Tufts University and an associate faculty member at the Wyss Institute at Harvard. He directs the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, where his team integrates biophysics, computational modeling, and behavioral science to study how cellular collectives make decisions during embryogenesis, regeneration, and cancer. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,30,269,42,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-ethics","category-life-extension","category-media-arts","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}