On the (Platonic) Nature of Things

Karl Friston · University College London · Theoretical neuroscience

Mapping to the Nexus

Friston applies the Free Energy Principle to show how systems self-organize to minimize surprisal, occupying mathematically privileged states of being. This provides the computational backbone for basal cognition, explaining how cells and tissues maintain their boundaries and infer their states by continuously striving toward target attractors defined by the Platonic space.

Key themes

  • Active inference and the free energy principle
  • The Markov blanket as the boundary that defines an agent
  • Generative-model priors as formal, attracting patterns

    • Concepts covered (Platonic Space glossary)

  • Active Inference
  • Boundary / Markov Blanket
  • Latent Platonic Space
  • Virtual Governor