"I wasn't expecting a conversation about single cells and cognition to explain why a large language model (LLM) feels like a person. But that's exactly what happened when I listened to Michael Levin on the Lex Fridman Podcast. Levin wasn't debating consciousness or speculating about artificial intelligence (AI). He was describing how living systems, from clusters of cells to complex organisms, cooperate and solve problems. The explanation was authoritative and grounded, but the implications push beyond biology."
"The second-person view emerges in relationships or interactions. It's the space where attention is shared, where empathy grows, and where we feel another mind leaning toward us. Humans know this perspective instinctively. Many social animals do, too. Finally, there's the third-person view-the external, observational frame: behavior, data, patterns, measurable action. It shows how a system operates in the world. Levin's key point is that these aren't different kinds of minds, but they are different perspectives on agency."
Living systems cooperate and solve problems across scales, from single cells to complex organisms. Minds can be seen from three perspectives: first-person internal experience with feelings and beliefs; second-person relational space of shared attention and empathy; and third-person observable behavior, data, and patterns. Agency appears in degrees: single cells show simple agency, tissues coordinate growth, and organisms behave in ways that respond to uncertainty, memory, and self-maintenance. Large language models generate fluent, conversational language that mimics the outward signs of mind but do not possess lived experiences, feelings, or genuine agency. Relying on fluent language risks conflating surface behavior with real minds.
Read at Psychology Today
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