What, Why & How do we Know ?
A post from @Kubbaj on The Active Inference Discord Server described as “a combo of Vervaeke, Henriques and Friston” In that “C-B-L-M” axis I couldn’t fail to see a version of Pirsig’s levels of static patterns (of value or quality) – not to mention the participatory / perceptual starting point “into” the system at its … Continue reading “Mapping Vervaeke to Pirsig in Active Inference?”
The hype around the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference is mushrooming at an amazing rate. This paper … : Designing Ecosystems of Intelligence from First Principles Karl J Friston, Maxwell J D Ramstead, et al (2 Dec 2022) … has several co-authors associates with VERSES as well as AII and (Wellcome Foundation & UCL). The … Continue reading “Active Inference Entrepreneurship”
Anil Seth’s Faraday Lecture has generated a fair bit of chat. I was initially a bit too unimpressed, not enough originality – probably turned off previously by his use of “hallucination”. In fact he is synthesising many of the same sources I am. Nothing new under the sun again (from my perspective). The notes below … Continue reading “Seth is OK”
Dan Dennett shared this Nick Humphrey lecture at the RI. https://t.co/We3BW2QEGe Nick’s best version by far of his theory of consciousness: the positive side of illusionism, with new lines of evidential support. — Daniel Dennett (@danieldennett) September 23, 2023 I’ve watched once through and notwithstanding clear differences – evolution of warm blooded mammals (environmental independence), … Continue reading “Nick Humphrey and Mark Solms?”
I’ve considered the idea of Physics as Information Processing as central to my work for as long as I can remember [As early as Jan 2002 this post on “Quantum Computing” makes reference to information processing as fundamental.]. The last few years, my “Systems Thinking” – thinking of anything as a system, in terms of functional … Continue reading “Chris Fields – Physics as Information Processing”
I heard today that Matthew West had died just yesterday of a brief illness, thanks to a Medium post by Ian Bailey shared on LinkedIn. Matthew’s contribution to my own interest in ontology is kinda baked-in to a lot of my thinking, in the same way that (say) Dennett and Pirsig are, with only a … Continue reading “Matthew West R.I.P.”
I’ve already documented my take that there really is no longer any mystery behind consciousness and our conscious (free) will – my simplest single reference being Mark Solms “Hidden Spring”. Surely, massively valuable in its own right to have solved that long-standing human riddle? And, more importantly, it takes away a massive source of confusion … Continue reading “Free Energy Principle Explains Consciousness”
This is a science-journalism article in Quanta Magazine by Philip Ball that covers many of the people and thoughts I’ve been pursuing here in recent years. “A New Idea for How to Assemble Life“ As soon as I saw the title, I asked myself is “assemble” being used here in the same way as “construct” … Continue reading “Shedding the Shackles of Determinism”
[Work in Progress – Draft will be edited without notification.] [Feedback appreciated on the “See / Refs” – where more are needed? Meantime all those indicated will be elaborated and worked into the text. And obviously on the intelligibility of the text so far. Drafting arose out of the “Three Essays” post, particularly “Algorithms for Humans” and … Continue reading “The Information Ontology Metaphysics”
I saw the excellent Dave Snowden speaking at the Annual Mike Jackson lecture at Hull University yesterday evening. [Post Note: The recording now available here.] [Post Note: This post is the start of a conversation in that continues here and again here, in 2024] Excellent in every way – Dave’s presentation and his conversation with … Continue reading “Dave Snowden and Mike Jackson”