This is the purpose of "Life" (Part 2) - Dr. J. Scott Turner, DemystifySci #389

Today we sit with the old questions and let them breathe again, tracing the places where life begins to feel like a presence rather than a computer. Turner walks through the fault lines of modern biology, pointing to the quiet mind-like shimmer in organisms shaping their worlds. The conversation moves slowly, deliberately, as if the universe itself were leaning in to listen. By the end, the idea of agency feels less like a taboo and more like something we’ve sensed all along. Part 1: https://youtu.be/MOr-FZ_ogTI PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show HOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album! Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-here Streaming: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here 00:00 Go! 00:08:43 – Gene-Centered Evolution Takes Over 00:11:10 – McClintock’s Discovery Breaks the Mold 00:14:19 – Genes as Interpreted Signals, Not Dictators 00:18:11 – From Mutationism to Epigenetics 00:20:41 – Dawkins and the Selfish Gene Frame 00:24:30 – Life Strives for More Than Survival 00:27:47 – Culture as a Force in Evolution 00:30:28 – Termites and Environmental Inheritance 00:32:22 – When Literalism Distorts Science and Religion 00:35:22 – Beyond Gould’s Magisteria 00:39:02 – The Aiming of Organisms 00:41:58 – Desire, Agency, and Evolutionary Trajectories 00:44:14 – Human Exceptionalism and the Myth of Evolution’s End 00:47:46 – Cultural Barriers to Integrative Biology 00:49:39 – The Transcendence of Materials 00:52:10 – Purposeful Behavior in Termite Societies 00:55:35 – Preference and Purpose in Termite Architecture 00:59:14 – Human Metaphysics and Cognitive Niches 01:04:19 – Cracks in the Evolutionary Consensus 01:06:39 – Biology as the Bridge Between Facts and Meaning 01:08:58 – The Missing Definition of Life 01:10:59 – Biology’s Identity Crisis 01:12:36 – Rethinking Life and the Universe 01:15:08 – The Origin of Life Problem 01:16:28 – From Chemistry to Cognitive Emergence 01:20:27 – Life as a Gradual Flame 01:23:13 – Agency as the Heart of Biology 01:25:42 – The Scientific Struggle With Agency 01:27:04 – Turner’s Work on Organisms, Design, and Purpose #consciousness, #agency , #evolution, #originoflife, #emergence, #complexity , #cognition , #purpose , #epigenetics , #philosophy, #meaning, #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/ AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671