Bioelectric Patterns

Michael Levin is a biologist who since the early 2000s, has pursued a weird idea - that bioelectric patterns are a higher-level control system.

Make sense? No?

Basically he believed that organisms aren’t like machines that execute on genetic problems, but more that they’re collective intelligences that solve problems - that bioelectric patterns are how cells communicate, not just through genes and chemicals.

Every cell is talking to each other through voltage gradients, ‘we’re building a leg’ or ‘repairing a tissue’. These conversations form collective intelligence - a kind of distributed decision-making network that figures out what to build.

People thought this was a load of shit - anything ‘energy fields’ related gets chucked straight in the pseudoscience bin

But Levin was able to make flatworms grow heads in the wrong places He created frogs that self-organise into novel forms that can’t exist in nature. He made tadpoles grow eyes in places they don’t grow.

The execution machine vs collective intelligence is an interesting metaphor for business

In the fitness industry, we’re taught to run businesses like machines - certain inputs lead to certain outputs, and if you just find the right inputs when you begin, success is an inevitability.

But this belief runs on flawed systems thinking - It assumes that everything remains equal. Our inputs are the same, the environment remains the same, and then the outputs are the same.

However, this doesn’t work.

Because on the input end, there’s a human - you.

On the output end, there’s a human - your clients.

So we’ve got two variables that change every minute of every day, and operate in an environment that’s ever-changing.

A systems-thinking approach to business is fine, but not alone. The frameworks are great, the structure is helpful - but it can become a straitjacket, where there’s no room for iteration or change of direction.

If you treat your business like an organism - everything changes.

Slow months aren’t malfunction, they’re feedback. A failured launch isn’t wasted effort, it’s data the system needs to reorganise When energy dips, you don’t replace parts - you adapt and solve the problem in front of you.

If your business stops working, you don’t have to stop or rip it up and start again - you just need to adapt.

You can just grow eyes on the stomach of your business, and carry on.