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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard
@doctorjosh.bsky.social
990 followers 290 following 89 posts
Robots. AI. Xenobots. meclab.org
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 4d
The caveats and context: bsky.app/profile/thos...
thosvarley.bsky.social
Thomas F. Varley @thosvarley.bsky.social · 8d
New paper!
This one is going to raise some eyebrows, so I want to explain the details before people get all worked-up about the title.
1/N
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Identification of brain-like complex information architectures in embryonic tissue of Xenopus laevis organoids
Understanding how populations of cells collectively coordinate activity to produce the complex structures and behaviors that characterize multicellular organisms, and which coordinated activities, ...
www.tandfonline.com
doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 4d
New paper dropped!

Led by @thosvarley.bsky.social and Pai Vaibhav, we show that flows of information within a #xenobot resemble flows of information observed in adult human brains.

Thomas provides caveats and context below.

w/ @drmichaellevin.bsky.social, Caitlin Grasso, & Jeantine Lunshof.
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 7d
For those interested in our growing body of work on "polycomputation", here's my attempt to summarize it in 40 minutes:

youtu.be/XnObbF2FkE4?...
Computational granular metamaterials (CGMMs)
YouTube video by Josh Bongard
youtu.be
2 5 13
doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 7d
Lab member Krishna Srinivasan delivers his very first academic presentation at the @alife2025.bsky.social conference.

Go Krishna!
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 9d
My friend and colleague @drmichaellevin.bsky.social delivering his @alife2025.bsky.social keynote address...

Remotely?

In person?

...?
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 9d
Lab member Nate Gaylinn describing evolutionary ramps and ratchets @alife2025.bsky.social...

(Paper coming soon...)
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · 17d
Thanks for hosting us Foresight Institute!

(w/ @tarinz.bsky.social and @drmichaellevin.bsky.social)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCq2...
Tarin Ziyaee, Mike Levin and Josh Bongard | Embodied Natural Intelligence VS Embodied AI
YouTube video by Foresight Institute
www.youtube.com
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Jul 11
#AIForGood attendees: thanks for the great questions about xenobots!

Some of you asked about the demo. If you missed it, it's here: tinyurl.com/AI4Good25.
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Jul 10
Just arrived at the UN's #AIForGood Symposium in Geneva.

Was in time to catch Daniela Rus' talk on AI Governance; I'll be speaking about #xenobots tomorrow.

(Joint work w/ Doug Blackiston, @samkriegman.com & @drmichaellevin.bsky.social).
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Jul 7
Looking forward to speaking at the first Biohybrid Robotics Conference tomorrow!

biohybrid-robotics.com
2 11
doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Jun 14
Lab alumnus @samkriegman.com just won a very prestigious NSF CAREER Award.

Congratulations Sam!!

www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...
2 1 12
Reposted by Josh Bongard
chrisadami.bsky.social
Chris Adami @chrisadami.bsky.social · May 26
Reminder that my book "Evolution of Biological Information", which was pandemically overpriced by @princetonupress.bsky.social, is 50% off until May 31, with the checkout code "BLOOM50". That's a reasonable price. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
The Evolution of Biological Information
Why information is the unifying principle that allows us to understand the evolution of complexity in nature
press.princeton.edu
3 13 53
doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · May 20
So proud of *Dr.* Caitlin Grasso (www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-g...).

She empowered herself by discovering how to empower machines (bit.ly/3Wwloi4).

Congratulations again Caitlin.
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · May 19
Paging @thosvarley.bsky.social
2
Reposted by Josh Bongard
ricardsole.bsky.social
Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · May 15
Can AI drive a shift toward systems that mimic the brain? Can we develop intelligent matter that learns, adapts, and processes information? Check this @nature.com paper @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @doctorjosh.bsky.social ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfil...
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · May 7
Sorry Hiroki! Their loss.
3
Reposted by Josh Bongard
hirokisayama.bsky.social
Hiroki Sayama @hirokisayama.bsky.social · May 2
Fun time to be in the US academia
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
www.nature.com
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · May 1
The final #robotics lecture: xenobots.

youtu.be/wAEdX1l259k?...
2025 Evolutionary robotics course. Lecture 29. Xenobots.
YouTube video by Josh Bongard
youtu.be
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 29
Today's lecture:

soft robots and differentiable robots.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHa_...
2025 Evolutionary robotics course. Lecture 28. Soft robotics.
YouTube video by Josh Bongard
www.youtube.com
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 24
Today's robotics lecture:

evolving bodies and brains.

youtu.be/xYL1Dfu0Odo
2025 Evolutionary robotics course. Lecture 26. Evolving bodies & brains.
YouTube video by Josh Bongard
youtu.be
2
doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 23
Snowflake robotics.

Presented at the 2025 Embodied Intelligence Conference.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbAq...
Josh Bongard: SNOWFLAKE ROBOTICS
YouTube video by AgriFoRwArdS CDT YouTube Channel
www.youtube.com
3
doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 22
Today's #robotics lecture:

the evolution of communication.

[Fun stuff starts at 27m]

youtu.be/JxQTaXSTiqI
2025 Evolutionary robotics course. Lecture 26. Evolution of communication.
YouTube video by Josh Bongard
youtu.be
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 17
Today's lecture: swarm robotics.

Again: what could possibly go wrong?

youtu.be/R3_QcxO1LO4
2025 Evolutionary robotics course. Lecture 25. Collective intelligence.
YouTube video by Josh Bongard
youtu.be
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 15
10 co-authors: Doug Blackiston, Hannah Dromiack, Caitlin Grasso, @thosvarley.bsky.social, Doug Moore, Krishna Srinivasan, Olaf Sporns, me, @drmichaellevin.bsky.social, @saraimari.bsky.social.

Special thanks to Sara Imari Walker for keeping all of us focused, for so long.

Great work team!
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doctorjosh.bsky.social
Josh Bongard @doctorjosh.bsky.social · Apr 15
We published a new xenobot-related paper today:

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

In a nutshell: building xenobots from frog "explants" is good because explants, apparently, come with adaptive potential "built in".

This paper took 6 years and 10 co-authors (see post #2) to reach the light.
Revealing non-trivial information structures in aneural biological tissues via functional connectivity
Author summary A central challenge in understanding several diverse processes in biology, including morphogenesis, wound healing, and development, is learning from empirical data how information is in...
journals.plos.org
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