Throwing off Markov blankets in a warming world
Is the destruction of global ecology for fossil-fuel profits consistent with the principle of active inference? As we can infer that we are actively killing our planet, of what use is the concept of surprise? In this essay I will
Farl Kriston
@FarlKriston
Why are you reading these tweets? Clearly, you believe they will reduce your uncertainty about whatever I’ll tweet next.
the global minimaJoined September 2013
Farl Kriston’s Tweets
"the free energy principle sometimes feels like a mind-blowing revelation of a deep truth about the structure of reality itself, and sometimes just an extremely jargon-intensive press release from the Department of Obvious Things."
patheos.com/blogs/scienceo #religion
17
37
Climate change is a trivial issue of the planet actively inferring it's own demise. It would not happen were it not the optimal conclusion. Here we show the main sources of this uncertainty.
Quote Tweet
I asked #gpt3 to write @FarlKriston 's response to climate change - you are welcome! (and thanks @KJuechems for the inspiration!)
Show this thread
4
6
49
Epidemiology? Trivial. To finesse the pandemic, we introduce a novel Markovian approach, dynamic casual sickology (DCS).
GIF
read image description
ALT
3
14
65
Forever I shall be a stranger to myself. In psychology as in logic, there are truths but no truth.
4
12
40
Show this thread
But aspects cannot be added up. This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled.
1
14
Show this thread
I can sketch one by one all the aspects it is able to assume, all those likewise that have been attributed to it, this upbringing, this origin, this ardor or these silences, this nobility or this vileness.
1
3
Show this thread
For if I try to seize this self of which I feel sure, if I try to define and to summarize it, it is nothing but water slipping through my fingers.
1
2
6
Show this thread
Of whom and of what indeed can I say: “I know that!” This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction.
1
2
15
Show this thread
Our alternate title was: Forever a stranger: why cross-validation is for suckers.
Quote Tweet
There’s no such thing as a ‘true’ model: the challenge of assessing face validity*
ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/docum
1
11
40
Show this thread
Hmm. Perhaps I will submit my next grant to this "Department of Obvious Things".
Quote Tweet
"the free energy principle sometimes feels like a mind-blowing revelation of a deep truth about the structure of reality itself, and sometimes just an extremely jargon-intensive press release from the Department of Obvious Things."
patheos.com/blogs/scienceo @FarlKriston #religion
1
8
36
I presume it is a case of active inference, in hopes of summoning the appropriate control states. Not unlike prayer.
Quote Tweet
I'm pretty sure that @FarlKriston is a parody account and Friston isn't on Twitter but people just can't help tagging the parody account in tweets directed to Karl...
2
11
79
The result is a long, over inclusive paper that tries to adopt conventions from different fields (which the author is not expert in), while emphasizing common themes.
1
20
This paper was written as an auto-didactic exercise to ensure the author’s intuitions played out over complementary formulations in statistical physics.
1
20
To address the nature of things,we start by asking how something can be distinguished from everything else.
7
38
The answers to these questions lead to a theory of everything in a literal sense.
1
3
11
These questions lead to even simpler questions; namely, if we are dealing with the states of something, what is the thing that possesses those states –and how does one distinguish anything from something else?
3
9
And here by 'normative model', what we mean to imply is that your model is an ignorant, trivial, posthoc description whereas ours is a natural law as writ by God herself. Obviously. Never fear though; to derive your model from ours is a trivial exercise.
2
58
The solution to cognitive science is trivial, really: just write down the appropriate prior for each and every thing. Not sure what all the fuss is about.
2
28
125
And on the Fifth day, the Great Prior created Physics, and all things unto it, and saw that it was Good.
Quote Tweet
A free energy principle for a particular physics by @FarlKriston arxiv.org/abs/1906.10184 Don't forget to check out Thomas Parr's brilliant slides at fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~tparr/Physics
1
6
32
Knowing which priors to write down is just a matter of asking God. Easy! twitter.com/EliSennesh/sta
This Tweet is unavailable.
4
22
Y = λf.( (λx.f(x x)) (λx.f(x x)) ) amirite??
Quote Tweet
This is correct. twitter.com/WiringTheBrain…
4
6
This is correct.
Quote Tweet
I think I think, therefore I think I am. Therefore I am. #Fridaydeepthoughts
2
3
39
A lovely place to restore ones long-term free energy path integral.
Quote Tweet
1
5
39
Active inference; punch (and bite) your way to satiation.
Quote Tweet
Being 'hangry' exists: why a lack of food can change your mood bit.ly/2jPsdKU
1
2
17
Through evolution, model-selection favors those organisms who exhibit the most "swole" free energy physique. This econiche is a great example of environmental hyper-parameter optimization.
Quote Tweet
Got too much free energy? This could be the gym for you (cc @FarlKriston). twitter.com/daniela_witten…
11
41
You only think that because you believe it to be so.
Quote Tweet
"Strong emergentist" theories such as Free Energy Principle and Integrated Information Theory "are at risk of metaphysical implausibility" sciencedirect.com/science/articl I'm working on a post about this... @FarlKriston
1
11
58
Helmholtz, 1920: spooky message from beyond the grave?
Quote Tweet
1900: Sherington: They connect to each other with synapses.
1900: Pavlov: Brains can learn predictions.
1910: Thorndike: Predictions of reward control behaviour.
1920: Helmholtz: The Brain is a Bayesian inference machine.
1930: Lowei/Dale: Synapses are chemical.
Show this thread
2
8
31
What does your model evidence suggest? Collect more data until convergence.
Quote Tweet
Will I ever be smart enough to appreciate the ideas of @FarlKriston?
Show this thread
1
2
26
1
4
19
Tried and succeeded! At least for birds.🐦
Quote Tweet
Karl Friston and I tried to model this kind of interaction in ‘a duet for one'
bit.ly/2POD5dV
2
10
True, although I prefer "Fristonian Era". The Friston School is also acceptable.
Quote Tweet
We live in Fristonian times! @FarlKriston
1
5
18
Ah, my dear confused child. I do not mock so much as teach! We're in the game of aligning hyper-priors and improving the collective Markov blanket. Try again. wired.com/story/karl-fri
3
37
166
I advise increasing the precision on your solar expectations. If that fails, reduce the depth of your counter-factual predictions or consult an oracle.
Quote Tweet
Replying to @hohwy
I am trying to actively infer sunshine in Greece. So far not happening.
1
6
40
In closing, if you are hungry think not of eating a sandwich. Instead, consider the elegance with which the sandwich and yourself enter into mutual constraints, upon which the joint entropy of your interaction (picnic) is minimized.
1
25
78
Show this thread
This (classical) model has now been superseded by a more constructivist and enactivist view of brain function that entails recurrent neuronal processing—and a circular causality among processing stages (and the world).
3
1
7
Show this thread
The sandwich model assumes three stages of information processing (perception, cognition, and action) that follow each other in a sequential fashion.
1
1
10
Show this thread
In retrospect, it should not have been quite so remarkable (to me). The predictive coding scheme described [...] has a long pedigree that can be traced back to the students of Plato and Kant to Helmholtz, whose ideas led to epistemological automata ...
4
This would be a highly efficient form of Self‐Evidencing.
Quote Tweet
Replying to @creativeEndvs @36zimmer and @FarlKriston
Do you also believe that @FarlKriston is secretly pretending to be a parody account of himself?
1
22


















