#11: From Ants to Active Inference with Daniel Ari Friedman

Send a love messageThis is a conversation between Andrea Hiott and Daniel Ari Friedman discussing various themes related to cognition, perception, action, and the concept of Active Inference. The conversation starts with Daniel's time with Deborah Gordan studying ants. Then they delve into the understanding of different terminologies and concepts relative to complexity, the individual and collective behaviour. They dive deep into Karl Friston's active inference and into relative terms like predictive processing, predictive coding and the role and application of models and 'maps' in scientific research. Daniel explains the principles of active inference in relation to cognition and perception and how it can be viewed as a scale-free (or better scale-friendly) framework. They also discuss the importance of semantics in their fields and the role of the Active Inference Institute. The conversation is reflective and philosophical, touching on the intersection between cognitive science, neuroscience, and environmental interaction. They come to words like 'service' and 'love' before it ends.Relative to way-making research: System 3 representations and a discussion of affordances (a fence post or a rock does not have them)Podcast artwork by Daniel Ari FriedmanDaniel's personal siteResearch sitePostdoc reviewActive Inference InstituteSupport on Patreon and You Tube. Listen anywhere you find podcasts.Andrea & Daniel discuss:scale-free and scale-friendly.Individual and Collective behaviour of ants.Complex systems.Bioinformatics.How we can find real boundaries, and how not-so-real boundaries can be modelled.Uncertainty.Language as a model.The difference between predictive processing, predictive coding, and active inference.Why a fence post does not have affordances.Affordance beyond Gibson.Perception as inbound regularities. Action as outbound regularities.  Buckminster Fuller: "Unity is plural and at minimum two."Deborah GordanGordon's paper Wittgenstein and Ant WatchingKarl FristonChris Fields ResearchCompetency in Navigating Arbitrary Spaces as an Invariant for Analyzing Cognition in Diverse EmbodimentsActive InferenceFor Paulo Sayeg: https://philpapers.org/versions/IENPPUFor RJ Cordes & Dean Tickles: https://zenodo.org/records/8266281Lars Sandved SmithYou Tube VideoFull intro and notes here.Care is not the opposite of love. It is the very urge of life. 'Caring for what?' is the primary question. That we have a choice about what we care for and how is what makes us human, but it's quite the challenge and responsibility. Let's help one another handle it.Support the showBuy Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness by Andrea HiottSign up for Making Ways newsletter and projects.Please rate and review with love. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Substack.