Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38920491›Full record

ArticleEntropy (Basel, Switzerland)2024

Self-Improvising Memory: A Perspective on Memories as Agential, Dynamically Reinterpreting Cognitive Glue.

Michael Levin

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Entropy (Basel, Switzerland), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Process and Dynamics in AI and Language Use.Topics in cognitive science · 2026
    Article
  2. Heuristically Adaptive Diffusion-Model Evolutionary Strategy.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  3. Reductionism in Engram Neuroscience.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Towards origins of virtual artificial life: an overview.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Review
  9. The Multiscale Wisdom of the Body: Collective Intelligence as a Tractable Interface for Next-Generation Biomedicine.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025
    Review
  10. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Michael LevinDepartment of Biology, Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University, 200 Boston Avenue, Suite 4600, Medford, MA 02155-4243, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7292-8084

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Many studies on memory emphasize the material substrate and mechanisms by which data can be stored and reliably read out. Here, I focus on complementary aspects: the need for agents to dynamically reinterpret and modify memories to suit their ever-changing selves and environment. Using examples from developmental biology, evolution, and synthetic bioengineering, in addition to neuroscience, I propose that a perspective on memory as preserving salience, not fidelity, is applicable to many phenomena on scales from cells to societies. Continuous commitment to creative, adaptive confabulation, from the molecular to the behavioral levels, is the answer to the persistence paradox as it applies to individuals and whole lineages. I also speculate that a substrate-independent, processual view of life and mind suggests that memories, as patterns in the excitable medium of cognitive systems, could be seen as active agents in the sense-making process. I explore a view of life as a diverse set of embodied perspectives-nested agents who interpret each other's and their own past messages and actions as best as they can (polycomputation). This synthesis suggests unifying symmetries across scales and disciplines, which is of relevance to research programs in Diverse Intelligence and the engineering of novel embodied minds.

Indexed as

basal cognitiondiverse intelligencelearningmemorymorphogenesis

Identifiers

PMID38920491
PMCPMC11203334

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.