J. Scott Turner

In his 2019 paper Levin describes the termite nest superorganism as marked by an extended physiology, citing Beekman and Oldroyd (2008) and Turner (2016). If the large nest is taken as the body, he says, it shows regenerative repair. It also shows a kind of swarm cancer and primitive cognition, such as hypothesis testing by the swarm during repair¹². The passages are Levin's summary. They give no measurements from Turner's own experiments.

Levin cites Turner (2011) with Seeley (2009) for the claim that cognitive concepts apply as much to societies of cells as to societies of animals. He adds that shared information binds small sub-agents into a larger self, and that this likely holds for swarms of bees and termites³. In 2022 he lists a Turner (2000) reference beside Clark and Chalmers for the extended mind, in a passage on larger selves managing sensing and action over larger spaces⁴. The held passages show Levin building on Turner's work. They do not show anyone disputing it.