Are Living Things Just A bunch Of Organic Transistors?

[Intoscience]

Are living things just a bunch of organic transistors?

I've been following (attempting to follow since I'm very ignorant when it comes to biology) the work of  Michael Levin - https://wyss.harvard.edu/team/associate-faculty/michael-levin-ph-d/  I was watching a pod cast recently and he was describing cells and as an analogy compared their behaviour as similar to transistors in mechanical electrical circuits. In that they communicate with junctions between themselves where electrical charged molecules can be shared, swapped etc...  

He was saying that individual living cells communicate using electricity not only in just the brain but every cell throughout the living organism but at differing rates of speed. Where a group of cells form there also forms an hierarchy that decides what form/shape the group will produce e.g. an eyeball, or a finger etc... One of the interesting things he is working on is the ability for geneticists to manipulate the cell group to form different structures, thus bio engineering. The potential of this is mind blowing when you consider the possibilities should it be successful over a large scale, not just in a lab at micro scales. 

https://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/levin/

Apologies if I have this a little mixed up, my understanding is very limited as biology is only a very casual interest of mine.

 

[Gina]

I have recently listened to his interview with Lex Fridman. Mind-blowing. He is brilliant. I have listened to it twice and I want to read more of his work and others of the same ilk. I do not have a science education but have been interested in the biological science for many years. I am desperate to have people to talk to about science stuff. Would love some suggestions if you have any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3lsYlod5OU&ab_channel=LexFridman

[MigL]

Transistors are very simple, they are basically just on/off switches.
However, if you put a bunch of them together, you can form gates.
And a bunch of gates together, with multiple inputs, and multiple outputs, does begin to resemble cellular structures.

[Intoscience]

8 hours ago, Gina said:

I have recently listened to his interview with Lex Fridman. Mind-blowing. He is brilliant. I have listened to it twice and I want to read more of his work and others of the same ilk. I do not have a science education but have been interested in the biological science for many years. I am desperate to have people to talk to about science stuff. Would love some suggestions if you have any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3lsYlod5OU&ab_channel=LexFridman

Yeah, I like to watch Lex Fridman's pod casts. He does often have some very interesting people on the show.

7 hours ago, MigL said:

Transistors are very simple, they are basically just on/off switches.
However, if you put a bunch of them together, you can form gates.
And a bunch of gates together, with multiple inputs, and multiple outputs, does begin to resemble cellular structures.

Yeah, I think this is the point he was making by similarity. Cells appear to work in much the same way.