
Conversation with Nic Rouleau, part 1: "Some thoughts on the mind as material"
From Thoughtforms Life by Michael Levin
April 3, 2026 · 1h 0m
About this episode
A discussion with neuroscientist Nicolas Rouleau on unconventional aspects of neuroscience.
This is a ~1 hour talk and discussion, comprising part 1 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau ( Nic goes over unconventional aspects of neuroscience touching on free will, cybernetics, consciousness, and a lot more. We start a discussion which is continued in part 2. For more information: Nic's website: X account: @DrNRouleau Recent papers to check out: Sellar, E.P., Rouleau, N. (In Review). A cybernetic framework for synthetic biological intelligence in the era of neural tissue engineering. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/md2wf_v1. Kansala, C., Cicek, E., Nkansah-Okoree, V., Golding, A., Murugan, N.J., Rouleau, N. (In Review). Superstitious conditioning forms the experience of free will under causal determinism. Preprint doi: 10.31234/osf.io/fk3yt_v2. Roskies, A. & Rouleau, N. (Forthcoming, In Press). Research on brain organoids should prioritize questions of agency, not consciousness. AJOB Neuroscience. Rouleau, N. & Levin, M. (In Press). Brains and where else? Mapping theories of consciousness to unconventional embodiments. Philosophical Transactions: A. Preprint…
People in this episode
Guest: Nicolas Rouleau
Topics covered
- neuroscience
- free will
- cybernetics
- consciousness
Keywords
- mind
- synthetic biological intelligence
- agency
- sentience
Mentioned in this episode
Products: neural tissue engineering, brain organoids
Books & works: The Multiple Realizability of Sentience in Living Systems and Beyond, eNeuro, 10(11)
Places: Rouleau, Kansala, Cicek, Nkansah-Okoree, Golding, Murugan, N.J.
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