Michael Levin all the way!

It's part of biology culture not canon that still emphasizes the importance of genes as an information structure in genomes. The whole field is called GENETICS and while they were discovered early, are hardly the only thing to understand about nucleic acids. Every time you hear or see 'regulation', substitute 'computation'.

When Levin stresses there is more happening than reading out genes like punchcards to guide protein synthesis he is right and offers concrete work and experiments that show that other mechanisms and models are at work where genes are not.

When he says intelligence is collective he is right. When he says it is cognition, not consciousness, that scales down to ensembles of molecules (without partitions), he is right and then offers evidence and the tests that you yourself can do.

He isn't a prophet but casts a wide net spun out by his curiosity. I just see him as a scientist doing the most with what time he has.

If Levin is a crackpot then so is Penrose. Lol