super fascinating talk that contradicts the simplified model of emergent behavior from purely genetics or neurons

there are many many layers of wild emergent behavior at different scales even within one organism

planeria can remember training even when you cut off and regrow their brains

caterpillars liquefy and rebuild their brains to become butterflies but still remember training from before metamorphosis. wtf? where are those memories stored?

big arguments for “memories” being really weirdly compressed into all kinds of state across the organism, which then balloon back out into complex behavior

really interesting: cancer cells are really good at detaching themselves (electrically) from their neighbors. hypothesis is that they think they’re a separate organism (which reasonably should grow) because they aren’t getting those signals from the rest of the collective

they fixed a cancer without fixing the oncogene by reconnecting its ion channels

changing the electrical signals / voltage differences can control where tadpole eyes grow and all kinds of other stuff

note: this is insane. all of the cellular rearranging and nutrient delivery etc can be controlled with this simple signal

different embryos even communicate with each other electrically

if you change the electrochemistry of a planaria, no genetic or physical changes, then cut in half it’ll grow a second head. is this a “memory”? wtf?