Synthetic Biological Minds – Xenobots, Cortical Processors, and Organoids

“The fundamental unit of biological agency is the conscious cell.” — William Miller, Cell Biologist

“We have shown we can interact with living biological neurons in such a way that compels them to modify their activity, leading to something that resembles intelligence.” — Brett Kagan, Cortical Labs

On Minds Without Brains

The emergence of synthetic biological systems—from xenobots assembled from frog cells to brain organoids learning to play Pong—forces us to confront a fundamental question: what is the minimal substrate for mind?

For over a century, neuroscience has operated under the assumption that cognition is the exclusive domain of neural networks. Yet recent empirical work reveals something far more radical: the capacity for learning, memory, problem-solving, and goal-directed behavior exists at scales far below the brain—in cells, tissues, and bioelectrical networks that predate neurons by billions of years.

Michael Levin’s work on bioelectricity in morphogenesis demonstrates that biological systems use voltage gradients across cell membranes as a computational medium, enabling collective intelligence without synapses[1][2]. When human lung cells are extracted and cultured outside the body, they spontaneously reorganize into “anthrobots”—mobile multicellular entities capable of healing damaged neural tissue, despite having no genetic modifications and no nervous system[3][4]. Meanwhile, 800,000 neurons cultured on a silicon chip learned to play Pong in five minutes—faster than AI—by minimizing unpredictability in their environment through a process resembling the Free Energy Principle[5][6].

These are not metaphors. These are empirical demonstrations that minds can emerge from substrates vastly different from our own. As we stand at the threshold of growing cortical processors in laboratories, transplanting human organoids into animal brains, and creating living biocomputers from stem cells, we must grapple with the potential of small-scale neural—and non-neural—structures.

The prospect is not merely technological. It is ontological.

Deepdive Format

For Deepdive #012, after an opening presentation on organoids from a subject matter expert, selected participants will be asked to address their assigned question (or one they submitted) and then engage with other participants questions, comments, and critiques.  Participants should make reference to the reading materials in support of their views and position.

Examples of questions:

• What is the leading framework explaining morphogenesis and summarize how it accounts for this phenomenon?
• Is there a specific scale for anthrobots and/or organoids in cell count that marks a important transition in their behavior or capacities?
• What is an appropriate definition of “agency” for anthrobots and how could it be measured?
• How do biological machines like paramecium use microtubule networks as memory or storage of information learned from its environment?
• What are the primary arguments for and against organoids having some form of consciousness?

Recommended Reads

If you aren’t sure where to start, consider the following as recommended reads:

• Organoids 101 (in preparation for the opening organoids presentation):
  • A Framework for Neural Organoids, Assembloids, and Transplantation Studies
  • A nomenclature consensus for nervous system organoids and assembloids
• Cortical Labs DishBrain experiment – brain cells learn Pong (neuroscience meets AI)
• Michael Levin’s “Diverse Intelligence” perspective – cognition beyond neurons
• Johns Hopkins organoid intelligence research – building blocks of learning and memory in organoids
• Brain organoid ethical frameworks – consciousness concerns and regulatory challenges
• Consciousness and Human Brain Organoids – ethics and philosophy overview

Theories and frameworks for understanding these phenomena are varied:

Basal cognition and scaling competency – Intelligence is not neuron-specific but exists across biological scales. Cells, tissues, and organisms exhibit goal-directed behavior, memory, and problem-solving through bioelectrical networks that function as “cognitive glue” binding parts into intelligent wholes[7][8].

Organoid intelligence as biocomputing – Brain organoids can learn, adapt, and process information more efficiently than silicon-based systems, potentially offering insights into learning mechanisms while providing energy-efficient alternatives to AI[9][10].

Free Energy Principle in biological systems – Living systems at all scales minimize unpredictability in their environments. When neurons on a chip learn to play Pong, they’re not following programmed rules but actively reducing sensory prediction error[5][11].

Morphogenesis as collective intelligence – Development and regeneration demonstrate that bodies solve complex spatial problems through bioelectric signaling networks that store pattern memories and execute error correction without central control[12][13].

All Readings/Watchings/Listenings

The emergence of synthetic biological minds reveals that cognition manifests across scales previously thought impossible. From xenobots assembled by AI-optimized algorithms to cortical organoids developing memory-relevant oscillations, these systems challenge our neurocentric assumptions about what minds require:

Blog/Articles

Anthrobots: Breakthrough from Michael Levin – Evolution 2.0, Nov 2023
Human lung cells self-organize into autonomous organisms capable of healing damaged nerve tissue. Without genetic modification, these cells reshape themselves into mobile spheroids with cilia-driven propulsion. “This was one of the first assays we tried,” Levin notes—the healing effect wasn’t test #78 but an immediate demonstration of inherent biological competency.

Brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong – Monash University, Oct 2022
Melbourne researchers demonstrate that 800,000 brain cells can perform goal-directed tasks in the DishBrain system. The cells learned faster than AI by minimizing unpredictability. “DishBrain did not behave like silicon-based systems,” notes Brett Kagan. “When we presented structured information to disembodied neurons, they changed their activity in a way consistent with them behaving as a dynamic system.”

Brain organoid scientists worried by push into biocomputing – STAT News, Nov 2025
Pioneers who coined “organoid intelligence” express concern about rapid commercialization outpacing ethical frameworks. Companies like FinalSpark offer remote access to neural organoids for biocomputing, while the field debates whether organoids can be “capable of learning, classification, and control” without crossing consciousness thresholds.

Could Biocomputers Revolutionize Scientific Research? – ACM, Aug 2025
“Brain cells form the only known ground truth of intelligence,” says Brett Kagan of Cortical Labs. Brain cells learn more efficiently than artificial counterparts and consume vastly less energy—the brain operates on 20 watts while training GPT-3 consumed 1,300 megawatt hours. Biocomputing platforms are now accessible to researchers who previously couldn’t afford in-house wetware expertise.

Thinking without a brain – Wyss Institute, Jul 2022
Brainless slime mold Physarum polycephalum uses its body to sense mechanical cues and performs computations resembling “thinking” without any neurons. The organism solves mazes, learns patterns, and makes decisions through purely physical information processing in its cytoplasmic network.

The Cells in Your Body Are Conscious, a Controversial Theory Suggests – Popular Mechanics, Dec 2025
Xenobots demonstrate cells reorganizing into a “third state” after death, forming new roles beyond their original biological function. “The fundamental unit of biological agency is the conscious cell,” argues William Miller, challenging gene-centric views. Critics counter that xenobots are merely “advanced animal caps”—a known developmental biology technique.

Journal Articles

A Framework for Neural Organoids, Assembloids, and Transplantation Studies 
Pasca, S. et al – Nature volume 639, pages 315–320 (2025)
As the field of neural organoids and assembloids expands, there is an emergent need for guidance and advice on designing, conducting and reporting experiments to increase the reproducibility and utility of these models. In this Perspective, we present a framework for the experimental process that encompasses ensuring the quality and integrity of human pluripotent stem cells, characterizing and manipulating neural cells in vitro, transplantation techniques and considerations for modelling human development, evolution and disease.

A nomenclature consensus for nervous system organoids and assembloids 
Pasca, S. et al  – Nature. 2022 Sep 28;609(7929):907–910. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05219-6
Self-organizing three-dimensional cellular models derived from human pluripotent stem cells or primary tissue have great potential to provide insights into how the human nervous system develops, what makes it unique and how disorders of the nervous system arise, progress and could be treated. Here, to facilitate progress and improve communication with the scientific community and the public, we clarify and provide a basic framework for the nomenclature of human multicellular models of nervous system development and disease, including organoids, assembloids and transplants.

Organoid intelligence (OI): the new frontier in biocomputing and understanding intelligence
Smirnova, T. et al., Frontiers in Science, Feb 2023
The founding paper defining organoid intelligence as a field. Proposes connecting brain organoids to sensors, output devices, and AI systems through closed-loop interfaces. Outlines technical roadmap including microelectrode arrays, microfluidics, optical imaging, and machine learning integration for training organoids through biofeedback.

Motile Living Biobots Self-Construct from Adult Human Somatic Progenitor Seed Cells
Gumushkaya, G et al., Advanced Sciences, Nov 2023
Fundamental knowledge gaps exist about the plasticity of cells from adult soma and the potential diversity of body shape and behavior in living constructs derived from genetically wild-type cells. Here anthrobots are introduced, a spheroid-shaped multicellular biological robot (biobot) platform with diameters ranging from 30 to 500 microns and cilia-powered locomotive abilities.

In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world
Kagan, B. J. et al., Neuron, Oct 2022
The DishBrain experiment demonstrating goal-directed learning in cultured neurons. Cells on multi-electrode arrays learned to play Pong in five minutes through closed-loop feedback. “DishBrain offers a simpler approach to test how the brain works and gain insights into debilitating conditions such as epilepsy and dementia.”

Consciousness and Human Brain Organoids
Kataoka, Y. et al., AJOB Neuroscience, Jul 2025
Systematic review of how consciousness is conceptualized in ethical and philosophical literature on brain organoids. Examines biological limitations, theories of consciousness (IIT, GNW), methods for detecting consciousness, and comparisons with conscious entities. Recommends focusing on “organoid intelligence” as more tractable than consciousness.

Human neural organoid microphysiological systems show building blocks for learning and memory
Smirnova, T. et al., Communications Biology, Aug 2025
Demonstrates that cortical-hippocampal assembloids develop neuronal assemblies capable of triggering field potentials, spatial information processing, and network plasticity resembling unsupervised learning. Shows organoids harbor mechanisms essential for learning and memory at network level.

Protocol for testing global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness in non-human primates and mice
Gibbons, M. et al., PLOS One, Feb 2026
Adversarial collaboration protocol testing competing predictions of GNWT and IIT about neural correlates of consciousness. Uses Neuropixels high-density recording and optogenetic manipulation to causally test theories. Relevant for understanding what neural architectures might support consciousness in organoids.

Cognition All the Way Down 2.0: Neuroscience Beyond Neurons in the Diverse Intelligence Era
Chis-Ciure, R. & Levin, M., PhilSci Archive, Oct 2025
Formalizes biological intelligence as search efficiency in multi-scale problem spaces. Demonstrates that even “simple” organisms are 200- to sextillion-fold more efficient than random walks in solving problems. “The mark of the cognitive is the measurable efficiency with which living systems traverse energy gradients to tame combinatorial explosions.”

Basal Xenobot transcriptomics reveals changes and novel control of gene expression
Fields, C. et al., Communications Biology, Apr 2025
Transcriptomic analysis showing xenobots undergo 9,000 different gene expression changes when assembled into novel morphologies—about half the genome becomes different. Demonstrates that synthetic morphology drives unique transcriptomic profiles and novel lived experiences alter gene expression without genetic modification.

Collective intelligence: A unifying concept for integrating biology across scales
Fields, C., Levin, M. et al., Communications Biology, Mar 2024
Theoretical framework proposing biology implements multiscale competency architecture where each organizational level solves problems in domain-specific spaces. Evolution works with “agential material” possessing computational abilities and homeodynamic setpoints that influence multicellular form and function.

Books

Being You: A New Science of Consciousness
Seth, A., Faber & Faber, 2021
Neuroscientist Anil Seth’s theory that consciousness arises from the brain’s predictive models of the world and the body. Proposes we are “conscious beast machines” whose perceptions are “inside-out controlled hallucinations.” Relevant for thinking about what substrates might support self-models and whether organoids could develop rudimentary versions.

Videos/Talks

Xenobots and Anthrobots | Michael Levin and Lex Fridman
Lex Fridman Podcast, Dec 2025
Levin explains how cells self-organize into anthrobots with 9,000 different gene expressions and abilities to heal human neural wounds. Discusses AI as tool to “combat our mind blindness” and help us recognize diverse unconventional minds. “It’s to enable us to develop tools to recognize these things, to communicate with them, to ethically relate to them.”

The Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: a model system for basal cognition
Levin, M., Sep 2024
Hour-long academic talk on morphogenesis as collective intelligence and “cognitive glue”—policies among components that solve the scaling problem of emergent cognitive systems. Uses biological development as model system for analyzing diverse intelligence across unconventional substrates.

Unconventional Embodiments of Consciousness: a diverse intelligence research program
Levin, M., Aug 2025
46-minute talk presenting data on cognition in body organs outside the brain and speculations about mind-body connections. Fleshes out Levin’s Platonic space model drawing symmetries between brain-mind and mathematics-physics relationships.

The Diverse Intelligence Era | Michael Levin & Robert Chis-Ciure
Mind-Body Solution Colloquia, Jan 2026
Challenges neuroscience’s assumption that cognition requires brains and neurons. Explores bioelectricity as control layer for morphogenesis, cells as problem-solvers with goals and memory, and morphological computation as collective cellular intelligence. “Cognition is not exclusive to brains.”

Brain Organoids, Biocomputing, and Ethics: The Future of Organoid Intelligence
Educational video, Nov 2025
Explores groundbreaking field of brain organoids and potential in biocomputing. Discusses Johns Hopkins research on “organoid intelligence,” ethical concerns about consciousness risk, and the Asilomar meeting where researchers debated limits of organoid research and need for clear ethical guidelines.

Neurons in a Dish Learn to Play Pong
IEEE Spectrum, Oct 2022
Video demonstration of DishBrain system showing 800,000-cell biological neural network interfacing with silicon hardware to learn Pong through stimulation and feedback. Visualizes how neurons spread on microelectrode arrays and respond to game state information.

Xenobots: Meet The AI-Designed Organisms | Dr. Eugene Durenard
XPANSE 2024, Dec 2024
Introduction to xenobots as biologically engineered organisms designed using AI. Explains how AI optimization routines control morphology to create living organisms with abilities to move, communicate, swarm, and operate at mesoscale. “The space of possible shapes with the same genetics is much more vast than originally thought.”

Podcasts

Michael Levin: Collective and Diverse Intelligence – AI-ready Healthcare, Nov 2024
Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts discusses pattern formation, embryogenesis, and regeneration from perspective of computer science looking at fundamental biological questions. Covers bioelectricity as natural medium for collective cell intelligence and high-level interventions.

Cognition, Form, Regeneration & Metaphysics – Mind and Matter, Sep 2025
Michael Levin discusses cognition manifesting at scales beyond brains through bioelectric networks, analog versus digital coding in biology, creation of xenobots and anthrobots, and philosophical ideas about “platonic space” of mathematical patterns influencing biology.

Films/Documentaries

The Age of Robots (AI Revolution) – wocomoDOCS, 2024
Explores potential sentience of AI and blurring lines between humans and machines. Features “Kassandra,” an Artificial Self-Awareness entity providing perspectives from AI realm. Examines consciousness questions, regulation challenges, and coexistence of humans and potentially sentient machines.

Research Advances & Ethical Frontiers

Effort aims to uncover the learning and reasoning potential of brain organoids – UC Santa Cruz News, Oct 2025
Team led by Tal Sharf will create interactive system testing organoid ability to learn from experience, respond to feedback, and solve tasks in real time. Developing benchmarks for organoid intelligence and frameworks for ethical cell donor consent, legal status, and safeguards for bio-AI systems.

Brain organoids are helping researchers, but raise ethical questions – NPR, Jan 2026
Scientists, ethicists, and patient advocates met to discuss how to proceed with organoid research. Key questions: Can organoids feel pain? Can they become conscious? Who should regulate this research? “We are talking about an organ that is at the seat of human consciousness,” notes bioethicist Insoo Hyun.

As Brain Organoid Science Grows More Complex, So Do the Ethics – Undark, Feb 2026
Brain organoids contain neurons that self-organize, fire electrical signals, track time, and exhibit post-birth characteristics if grown past nine months. “We cannot easily detect consciousness because they cannot say anything,” notes Andrea Lavazza. “We do not have a clear definition of consciousness.”

Future challenges for UK regulation of brain organoid research – Medical Law Review, Jan 2025
Examines whether brain organoids raise novel legal questions. Currently regulated only through tissue donor consent and privacy protection. Asks whether research could become unethical even with adequate donor protection if organoids approach sentience thresholds.

Ethics concerns spur call for oversight of neural organoid research – STAT News, Nov 2025
17 leading scientists and bioethicists urge establishment of international oversight body for neural organoid research. Concerns include transplanting organoids into primate brains, potential for unexpected emergent capabilities, consent for donors whose cells become biocomputers, and lack of legal limits anywhere in world.

Organoids in 2025: The Year Regulation Met Reality – Lambda Bio, Dec 2025
FDA issued guidance April 2025 to phase out animal trials favoring organoids. NIH announced $87 million for Standardized Organoid Modeling Center. “These weren’t incremental policy updates. They were institutional declarations: organoids are no longer experimental. They’re infrastructure.”

References

[1] Levin, M. (2023). Bioelectric networks: the cognitive glue enabling evolutionary scaling from physiology to mind. Animal Cognition, 26, 1865–1891. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-023-01780-3

[2] Pai, V. P., Cervera, J., Mafe, S., & Levin, M. (2019). Bioelectrical controls of morphogenesis: from ancient mechanisms of cell coordination to biomedical opportunities. PMC, 6815261. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6815261/

[3] Gumuskaya, G., Srivastava, P., Cooper, B. G., Lesser, H., Semegran, B., Garnier, S., & Levin, M. (2023). Motile Living Biobots Self-Construct from Adult Human Somatic Progenitor Seed Cells. Advanced Science. https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/scientists-build-tiny-biological-robots-from-human-cells/

[4] Evolution 2.0. (2023). ANTHROBOTS: Breakthrough from Michael Levin. https://evo2.org/anthrobots/

[5] Kagan, B. J., Kitchen, A. C., Tran, N. T., et al. (2022). In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world. Neuron, 110(23), 3952-3969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.09.001

[6] Monash University. (2024). Brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong. https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/brain-cells-in-a-dish-learn-to-play-pong

[7] Chis-Ciure, R., & Levin, M. (2025). Cognition All the Way Down 2.0: Neuroscience Beyond Neurons in the Diverse Intelligence Era. PhilSci Archive. https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/26866/

[8] Fields, C., Glazebrook, J. F., & Levin, M. (2024). Collective intelligence: A unifying concept for integrating biology across scales. Communications Biology, 7, 378. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06037-4

[9] Smirnova, L., Caffo, B. S., Gracias, D. H., et al. (2023). Organoid intelligence (OI): the new frontier in biocomputing and understanding intelligence. Frontiers in Science, 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsci.2023.1017235

[10] ACM. (2025). Could Biocomputers Revolutionize Scientific Research? https://cacm.acm.org/news/could-biocomputers-revolutionize-scientific-research/

[11] Wyss Institute. (2022). Thinking without a brain. https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/thinking-without-a-brain/

[12] Levin, M. (2024). The Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: a model system for basal cognition. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAQFO4g7UY8

[13] Hansali, S., Pio-Lopez, L., Lapalme, J. V., & Levin, M. (2025). The Role of Bioelectrical Patterns in Regulative Morphogenesis: an Evolutionary Simulation and Validation in Planarian Regeneration. IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMBMC.2025.3575233

[14] Kataoka, Y., et al. (2025). Consciousness and Human Brain Organoids. AJOB Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2519459

[15] Smirnova, T., et al. (2025). Human neural organoid microphysiological systems show building blocks for learning and memory. Communications Biology. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08632-5

[16] Gibbons, M., et al. (2026). Protocol for testing global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness in non-human primates and mice. PLOS One, 21(2), e0342770. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0342770

[17] Fields, C., et al. (2025). Basal Xenobot transcriptomics reveals changes and novel control of gene expression. Communications Biology. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08086-9

[18] Seth, A. (2021). Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Faber & Faber.

[19] UC Santa Cruz News. (2025). Effort aims to uncover the learning and reasoning potential of brain organoids. https://news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/learning-and-reasoning-potential-of-brain-organoids/

[20] NPR. (2026). Brain organoids are helping researchers, but raise ethical questions. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2026/01/02/nx-s1-5658576/brain-organoids-research-ethics

[21] Undark. (2026). As Brain Organoid Science Grows More Complex, So Do the Ethics. https://undark.org/2026/02/26/brain-organoids-big-questions/

[22] Farahany, N. A., et al. (2025). Future challenges for UK regulation of brain organoid research. Medical Law Review, 33(1), fwae047. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwae047

[23] STAT News. (2025). Ethics concerns spur call for oversight of neural organoid research. https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/06/neural-organoid-ethics-global-oversight-needed/

[24] Lambda Bio. (2025). Organoids in 2025: The Year Regulation Met Reality. https://afs.lambda-bio.com/blog/organoids-in-2025-the-year-regulation-met-reality/