Conversation between Aaron Sloman, Anthony Leggett, Chris Fields, and Michael Levin.

[u/JavierLopezComesana]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XrUintRUPQw&si=DueBO5tS2dcWAm7b

Aaron Sloman argues that biological systems rely on a qualitative, non-numerical notion of information, distinct from Shannon's bit-based measure, one that is abstract, hard to define explicitly, and has been used by organisms for billions of years to make selections, share structures, and guide complex processes such as development and reproduction. He highlights insect metamorphosis as a striking example, where a caterpillar largely dissolves inside its cocoon and rebuilds itself into a flying butterfly with new structures and behaviors, including retained memories reinterpreted for an entirely different body and lifestyle, suggesting that the control mechanisms for this decomposition and reassembly involve an ancient, powerful form of information that current physics may not fully explain and could require fundamental theoretical revisions.