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The Research That Rethinks Neuroscience & Biology | Dr. Bernardo Kastrup

2025-05-09 Education
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Essentia Foundation
Essentia Foundation
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Watch the full interviews with Dr. Christof Koch and Professor Michael Levin, which are discussed in this video, here: https://youtu.be/uFMLpZkkH_8 https://youtu.be/1V-5t0ZPY7E Hans Busstra talks to Dr. Bernardo Kastrup about the groundbreaking work of Professor Michael Levin and Dr. Christof Koch. Levin’s research into bio-electric fields reveals that cellular networks use electrical signals not just for immediate physiological tasks, but to coordinate complex patterning and memory across tissues—suggesting a kind of distributed intelligence in living systems. Christof Koch, meanwhile, champions Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which proposes that consciousness is an intrinsic property of certain physical systems with high levels of causal interconnectivity. Both lines of inquiry challenge the traditional reductionist view that mind is merely an emergent byproduct of neural activity. Instead, they point to a more holistic, perhaps even fundamental, role for information and consciousness in nature. Though Levin and Koch make no explicit metaphysical claims in their work, their empirical findings and views are very much in line with analytic idealism. For a more in depth analysis of IIT by Bernardo Kastrup: https://www.essentiafoundation.org/in-defense-of-integrated-information-theory-iit/reading/ 0:00 Introduction On Michael Levin's work on bio-electric fields 2:49 What fascinates Bernardo about Michael Levin's work 4:34 Flatworms regenerate in ways not encoded in DNA 5:54 How do cells know how to grow organs? On morphogenesis 8:36 How does intelligence scale up? 11:43 On Zenobots and programmable life 12:30 Can you 'tell' cancer cells to stop growing? 17:01 Cancer as internal dissociation 20:00 Is Levin's work pointing to a paradigm shift? 22:09 How Levin’s ideas inform Kastrup’s thinking 26:47 What role does consciousness play in Levin's work? On Christof Koch's Integrated Information Theory 32:32 Bernardo explains Integrated Information Theory (IIT) 34:29 What does it mean to ‘integrate information’? 36:44 Bacteria vs AI: Which is truly intelligent? 38:08 Conscious machines are not intelligent machines? 38:46 Our brain vs artificial neural networks 42:18 What about quantum computers? 44:02 Is IIT a test for consciousness? 48:04 Is IIT the first theory of the noumena? 53:06 What is the substrate of universal consciousness? 56:14 Does Integrated Information increase on psychedelics? 57:00 Is “universal consciousness” just someone tripping? 58:49 On the clash between philosophy and IIT 1:00:25 The philosophical limits of IIT 1:07:10 Why Bernardo has high hopes for IIT 1:10:10 IIT in relationship to other consciousness theories 1:12:20 Bernardo introduces his new AI company: Syncthetics Stock and archival images: Storyblocks & Michael Levin Lab. All music is licensed under Soundstripe and Storyblocks. Copyright © 2025 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.

Top Comments (10)

@samalqattan 2025-05-10

I don’t know if Hans gets a lot of credit but he really deserves it. His listening and conversational skills in these complex topics are spectacular. Well done 👏

173 3 replies
@JemilMarcosTyC 2025-05-11

1:16:21 This pierced right through my heart... A brilliant mind confronted by the most arrogant, ignorant and stupid question: "Why should I listen to you, if you have only a PhD". That phrase reflects just how rotten academia can become when it turns inward, elitist, and disconnected from the true spirit of science — which should be curiosity, questioning, humility, and openness to evidence — not a race for degrees or a battle of egos. Kastrup is no amateur. He holds a PhD in computer science, worked at CERN, and published papers in theoretical physics and philosophy of mind. But because he doesn't belong to the "right club," some pseudo-academics treat him like a modern-day heretic — not because he lacks ideas, but because he lacks the “proper credentials” in the “proper box.” Who defines the criteria for earning a PhD? More often than not, it’s committees with mediocre mindsets, whose greatest achievement is having survived the system — not transcended it. And that leads to this absurdity: If you say what the system expects, you're celebrated. If you offer a disruptive idea but don't come from the “approved environment,” you're canceled. It reminds me of the great minds once ignored: Ramanujan, Faraday, Baruch Spinoza, Einstein, among others... The plain truth is that these mediocrities fear new ideas, worship hierarchy, and mask intellectual laziness as academic rigor. Anyone who tells another human being, “I won’t listen to you because you don’t have X degree,” is admitting they lack the ability to evaluate ideas on their own. They are soldiers of academic dogma — not free thinkers. If there’s anything the world needs now more than ever, it’s people who think outside the framework… but with rigor, clarity, honesty, and passion. Like Kastrup does — and like all the greats did, who were first ridiculed… and later canonized.

169 8 replies
@nickaquista7620 2025-05-09

Bernardo Kastrup, Federico Faggin and Donald Hoffman have changed the world and how I view it now. They are the 3 people on this earth who are on the right path to human consciousness and why we are here to begin with. Love them! This interview was great.

149 23 replies
@laoluAD 2025-05-11

At a time when most of the discussions we are exposed to are insincere, shallow, half baked and downright misleading. Every time you share these videos and the constant progress being made, all I can say is thank you. ♥️

35
@attitudelongitude3348 2025-05-22

This is exactly what Dr Rupert Sheldrake has been on for years. “Morphic Ressonance”. Great interview 👏🏻👏🏻🫶🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

29
@MrThumos72 2025-05-10

Credit needs to be given to Rupert sheldrake

23 3 replies
@friendlyone2706 2025-06-06

There are/were 3 varieties of salamanders in the Italian alps --- It turned out they were all the same variety, their form changed with the altitude. A fact discovered by accident when a researcher collected some high altitude specimens and brought them down to sea level where his lab was located. I read about this over 20 years ago, and it is an example of what this gentleman is discussing. True ideas will re-emerge for anyone who looks directly into Nature's Open Book.

13
@EcoTHEgrey 2025-05-10

I have to mention that IIT's author is Giulio Tononi not Kristof Koch as it is said în this podcast.

8
@retaksthe 2025-05-14

If there are writers out there who are beginning to grasp analytic idealism or the discoveries of Micheal Levin; please consider a young readers book, with simple illustration and language that could introduce (not indoctrinate) youth and children. We need good stories that reveal truths and inspire the imagination of our children of the world. Thank you.

7
@JohnWilmerding 2025-12-16

Credit also Rupert Sheldrake for his theory of Morphic Resonance

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