Since this guy really loves Michael Levin, thought I'd share a little anecdote.
I had the unhappy privilege of attending one of his academic talks during his xenobots era, where he claimed his artificial living systems could seek and sense food based on local gradient. He was asked during the talk whether he'd controlled for mechanical effects, after all maybe the xenobot was just preferentially diffusing towards the food rather than sensing it. Levin responded by calling the guy an idiot, and seemed to suggest that there was no difference between these explanations.
I had the unhappy privilege of attending one of his academic talks during his xenobots era, where he claimed his artificial living systems could seek and sense food based on local gradient. He was asked during the talk whether he'd controlled for mechanical effects, after all maybe the xenobot was just preferentially diffusing towards the food rather than sensing it. Levin responded by calling the guy an idiot, and seemed to suggest that there was no difference between these explanations.
Charming guy.