The primary objectives of this Push and Pull document are to explore the decoupling of cognitive (covert, attentional) and bodily (overt) behaviors , and to provide a sequence of hands-on computer exercises for further exploration .
The priming sequence of exercises is presented to inform an individual’s understanding of how their attention interacts with computer use movements, such as controlling the on-screen cursor with mouse, touchpad, or eye movements.
What is presented here is only an initial sequence to complement other and future development of “hand-I” uncouplings, in principle and in practice.
danielarifriedman.comNavigating Uncertainty ~ Power, Knowledge, and ChangeDaniel Ari Friedman2024-09-26 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
Cognitive Sovereignty & Active Inference in the State of Exception zenodo.org/records/10038232 Daniel Friedman
This paper provides an analysis of Giorgio Agamben's book Homo Sacer in the tradition of Active Inference. Homo Sacer articulates the relationship between bare life and political existence in Western politics and metaphysics. Agamben argues that politics is founded on the inclusive exclusion of bare life, where natural biological life – the physiology and cognition of the body – is politicized only through its exclusion as an exception. Drawing on Aristotle's definition of man as a political animal, Agamben traces the historical development of this structure and its continuation in modern biopolitics.
Here we develop the above concepts in the setting of cognitive sovereignty and connect Agamben's framing of the political state of exception with Thomas Kuhn's theory of revolutionary science. We assert that realized epistemic agency is grounded in the enacted policy selection of the cognitive sovereign. A given paradigmatic framework, whether in the normal political or normal scientific setting, establishes what counts as valid knowledge and action. Such normative establishments periodically enter crises, which are exited by cognitive and material restructuring downstream of the sovereign's cognitive agency (an agent's cognitive sovereignty).
The paper explores how Active Inference, a theoretical framework for scientific inference, can enhance our understanding of sovereignty, agency, and the state of exception. As an introductory offering into this space, several concordances are drawn between Active Inference and Homo Sacer. Specifically: the state of exception is discussed in terms of affordances, bare life is discussed in terms of variational free energy, and sovereign agency is discussed in terms of expected free energy. Pseudocode of an "Active Stateference" entity is provided.
Overall, this paper offers an initial accounting of Homo Sacer from the Active Inference perspective, and sketches some salient directions for understanding the dynamics of power, knowledge, and sovereignty in politics and science.
danielarifriedman.comAnts Secret Language ~ One Pheromone TheoryDaniel Ari Friedman2024-09-26 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
A single-pheromone model accounts for empirical patterns of ant colony foraging previously modeled using two pheromones sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389041723000207 Eric Saund, Daniel Friedman In a 2009 paper, Dussutour et al. proposed that big headed ants (Pheidole megacephala) employ two attractant pheromones during foraging: one for exploration and another during food gathering. This claim was consistent with, and argued to be supported by, laboratory studies of ant exploration and food-gathering in a Y-maze apparatus. The authors measured foraging activity and colony foraging choice in terms of the number of ants choosing different branches over time, where experimental conditions modified the history of food availability at the end of each branch. They built a two-pheromone mathematical model to account for observed rates and proportions of ants traversing the left versus right branch. Here we show that the main reported experimental observations can be explained by a one-pheromone model. Our findings show that it is plausible, but unnecessary, to hypothesize that these ants employ two distinct pheromones in order to account for the two principal results of the Dussutour et al. study, and therefore, the study falls short of dispositive evidence for a two-pheromone model. More broadly, we highlight that patterns of animal behavior can be ambiguous with respect to sensory and cognitive mechanisms, hopefully motivating future modeling efforts that perform formal comparison across models with different structure.
danielarifriedman.comWay Finding in the Infinite Imaginarium: Juxtaposing Epistemic Tempos and ModesDaniel Ari Friedman2024-09-26 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
Way Finding in the Infinite Imaginarium: Juxtaposing Epistemic Tempos and Modes zenodo.org/records/10601082 Daniel Friedman This paper, titled "Way Finding in the Infinite Imaginarium: Juxtaposing Epistemic Tempos and Modes" by Daniel Ari Friedman, explores the concept of navigating through knowledge and understanding in an infinite space of imagination. The author introduces the idea of an "Infinite Imaginarium" consisting of Known territory, Gray Zone, and Dark Imaginarium, representing different levels of understanding and exploration. The paper discusses two main epistemic modes: "gap-filling," which is solid, wide, and slow, aiming to convert the unknown into known, and "gap-respecting," which is diaphanous and fast, allowing for quantum-like leaps in understanding. Friedman uses various metaphors, including domino stacking, Jenga towers, and wayfinding, to illustrate the processes of language development, question-asking, and knowledge acquisition. The author emphasizes the importance of both resolving questions directly and exploring alternative perspectives or deeper meanings, highlighting the role of Subject Matter Expertise and Prediction Matter Expertise in navigating the Infinite Imaginarium. The paper concludes by reflecting on the gap-respecting nature of language and the importance of conversations in developing knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom.
danielarifriedman.comQuantum Dreams ~ Adapting to Learnings Uncertainty (Four-fold Fields of Quantum Dreams)Daniel Ari Friedman2024-09-25 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
Four-fold Fields of Quantum Dreams zenodo.org/records/10798145 Daniel Friedman, Dean Tickles. A very human consideration about taking perspectives on frameworks, told through an adventure playing out in a moment at a Quantum Baseball Spring Training gym.
danielarifriedman.comThe Power of Communication in Intelligence Federated inference and belief sharingDaniel Ari Friedman2024-09-25 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
Federated inference and belief sharing Author links open overlay panel Karl J. Friston, Thomas Parr, Conor Heins, Axel Constant, Daniel Friedman, Takuya Isomura , Chris Fields, Tim Verbelen, Maxwell Ramstead, John Clippinger, Christopher D. Frith sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763423004694
This paper concerns the distributed intelligence or federated inference that emerges under belief-sharing among agents who share a common world—and world model. Imagine, for example, several animals keeping a lookout for predators. Their collective surveillance rests upon being able to communicate their beliefs—about what they see—among themselves. But, how is this possible? Here, we show how all the necessary components arise from minimising free energy. We use numerical studies to simulate the generation, acquisition and emergence of language in synthetic agents. Specifically, we consider inference, learning and selection as minimising the variational free energy of posterior (i.e., Bayesian) beliefs about the states, parameters and structure of generative models, respectively. The common theme—that attends these optimisation processes—is the selection of actions that minimise expected free energy, leading to active inference, learning and model selection (a.k.a., structure learning). We first illustrate the role of communication in resolving uncertainty about the latent states of a partially observed world, on which agents have complementary perspectives. We then consider the acquisition of the requisite language—entailed by a likelihood mapping from an agent's beliefs to their overt expression (e.g., speech)—showing that language can be transmitted across generations by active learning. Finally, we show that language is an emergent property of free energy minimisation, when agents operate within the same econiche. We conclude with a discussion of various perspectives on these phenomena; ranging from cultural niche construction, through federated learning, to the emergence of complexity in ensembles of self-organising systems.
danielarifriedman.comThe Active Inference Institute and Active Inference EcosystemDaniel Ari Friedman2024-09-25 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
The Active Inference Institute and Active Inference Ecosystem
zenodo.org/records/8266281 This document briefly surveys the current state of the Active Inference Institute and Active Inference Ecosystem, and outlines our future directions. It will be versioned as a living representation (both cyclic and updating) of ecosystems both general and local, describing the past, present, and future actions of the Active Inference Institute. https://ecosystem.activeinference.institute/
danielarifriedman.comShared Protentions in Multi-Agent Active InferenceDaniel Ari Friedman2024-09-25 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
Shared Protentions in Multi-Agent Active Inference mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/4/303 by Mahault Albarracin, Riddhi J. Pitliya, Toby St. Clere Smithe, Daniel Ari Friedman, Karl Friston and Maxwell J. D. Ramstead In this paper, we unite concepts from Husserlian phenomenology, the active inference framework in theoretical biology, and category theory in mathematics to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding social action premised on shared goals. We begin with an overview of Husserlian phenomenology, focusing on aspects of inner time-consciousness, namely, retention, primal impression, and protention. We then review active inference as a formal approach to modeling agent behavior based on variational (approximate Bayesian) inference. Expanding upon Husserl’s model of time consciousness, we consider collective goal-directed behavior, emphasizing shared protentions among agents and their connection to the shared generative models of active inference. This integrated framework aims to formalize shared goals in terms of shared protentions, and thereby shed light on the emergence of group intentionality. Building on this foundation, we incorporate mathematical tools from category theory, in particular, sheaf and topos theory, to furnish a mathematical image of individual and group interactions within a stochastic environment. Specifically, we employ morphisms between polynomial representations of individual agent models, allowing predictions not only of their own behaviors but also those of other agents and environmental responses. Sheaf and topos theory facilitates the construction of coherent agent worldviews and provides a way of representing consensus or shared understanding. We explore the emergence of shared protentions, bridging the phenomenology of temporal structure, multi-agent active inference systems, and category theory. Shared protentions are highlighted as pivotal for coordination and achieving common objectives. We conclude by acknowledging the intricacies stemming from stochastic systems and uncertainties in realizing shared goals.
danielarifriedman.comAnt Inspired Algorithms ~ A New Frontier (Enhancing Population-based Search with Active Inference)Daniel Ari Friedman2024-09-25 | Podcast and voices from Google NotebookLM Revid AI video addition
arxiv.org/abs/2408.09548 [Submitted on 18 Aug 2024] Enhancing Population-based Search with Active Inference Nassim Dehouche, Daniel Friedman The Active Inference framework models perception and action as a unified process, where agents use probabilistic models to predict and actively minimize sensory discrepancies. In complement and contrast, traditional population-based metaheuristics rely on reactive environmental interactions without anticipatory adaptation. This paper proposes the integration of Active Inference into these metaheuristics to enhance performance through anticipatory environmental adaptation. We demonstrate this approach specifically with Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) on the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). Experimental results indicate that Active Inference can yield some improved solutions with only a marginal increase in computational cost, with interesting patterns of performance that relate to number and topology of nodes in the graph. Further work will characterize where and when different types of Active Inference augmentation of population metaheuristics may be efficacious.
danielarifriedman.comAnt Foraging at night, with & without infrared.Daniel Ari Friedman2024-09-10 | Foraging Ants at night with & without infra-red. As they cross a path, slightly west of UC Davis campus.
danielarifriedman.comInside a lecture hall alone at night (UC Davis)Daniel Ari Friedman2024-09-10 | Lecture hall at the University of California, Davis, at night.
cognitivesecurity.usBike ride around Davis, California, USA (Sept 5, 2024)Daniel Ari Friedman2024-09-06 | Biking around Davis campus, Arboretum, city, and surroundings, on September 5, 2024.
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