Embryos and regenerating systems produce very complex, robust anatomical structures and stop growth and remodeling when those structures are complete. One of the most remarkable things about morphogenesis is that it is not simply a feed-forward emergent process, but one that has massive plasticity: even when disrupted by manipulations such as damage or changing the sizes of cells, the system often manages to achieve its morphogenetic goal. How do cell collectives know what to build and when to stop? In this talk, I will highlight some important knowledge gaps about this process of anatomical homeostasis that remain despite progress in molecular genetics. I will then offer a perspective on morphogenesis as an example of a goal-directed collective intelligence that solves problems in morphospace and physiological space. I will sketch the outlines of a framework in which evolution pivots strategies to solve problems in these spaces and adapts them to behavioral space via brains. Neurons evolved from far more ancient cell types that were already using bioelectrical network to coordinate morphogenesis long before brains appeared. I will show examples of our work to read and write the bioelectric information that serves as the computational medium of cellular collective intelligences, enabling significant control over growth and form. I will conclude with a new example that sheds light on anatomic plasticity and the relationship between genomically-specified hardware and the software that guides morphogenesis: synthetic living proto-organisms known as Xenobots. In conclusion, a new perspective on morphogenesis as an example of unconventional basal cognition unifies several fields (evolutionary biology, cell biology, cognitive science, computer science) and has many implications for practical advances in regenerative medicine, synthetic bioengineering, and AI.
Video introduction to Xenobots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQRBCCjaYGE&t=6s