Predictive processing and the free energy principle

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Friston, Clark, the brain as inference engine: the brain as a hierarchical prediction engine that continually generates models of the world and updates them against sensory input. Currently the most ambitious unifying framework in cognitive neuroscience.

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State the free energy principle in plain language (roughly: systems that persist minimize the surprise of their sensory input relative to their internal model).Explain what "prediction error" means in this framework.Give one concrete example of a predictive-processing account of perception (e.g., the hollow-mask illusion, binocular rivalry, hallucination).Explain why predictive processing is not a theory of the hard problem — it's an account of how the brain processes information, compatible with various positions on consciousness.

resources

○Surfing Uncertainty— Andy Clarkanchor · book
○The Hidden Spring— Mark Solmscompanion · book
○Free energy principle papers— Karl Fristonoptional · paper

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unlocks A much richer reading of Anil Seth's Being You. Also links to the Information page (Shannon entropy and surprise), the Math page (Bayesian inference), and the emergence unit (predictive processing as a systems-level story).

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