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How do “you” emerge from a collection of cells? A biologist explains. ❍ Subscribe to The Well on YouTube: ❍ Up next: How your brain creates reality | The concept of the “self” has long been considered philosophically significant: a foundation for exploring who we are and why we’re here. But where does the self begin? Developmental biologist Michael Levin explores this question, explaining how the “self” is constantly being constructed and created, starting in the early moments of embryogenesis. Levin argues against binary categorizations of selfhood, emphasizing that it is a continuous process with no sharp lines between different stages of development or evolution. Using the example of self-organizing cells in the formation of the embryo, Levin also asserts that the self is not a singular entity — rather, it is a collection of structures working together towards a specific goal. For Levin, the idea of
