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ACTIVE INFERENCE

FEP, expected surprise, polyvagal, predictive processing

Ten Testable Predictions from the Free Energy Principle

Ten Testable Predictions from the Free Energy Principle

From 808s to Therapy Rooms to Viral Memes Ryan Collison Independent Researcher, ideasthesia.org ryan@ideasthesia.org ORCID: 0009-0001-7152-2127 Keywords: free energy principle, active inference, predictive processing, entrainment, precision weighting, physiological synchrony, cultural evolution Abstract The Free Energy Principle (FEP) promises a unified account of self-organisation, yet direct empirical tests

The Unified Theory of Staying Alive: From Atoms to Cultures

The Unified Theory of Staying Alive: From Atoms to Cultures

We've come a long way. Twenty articles, starting with a simple claim: your brain isn't watching the world—it's guessing what happens next. From there, we've traveled through predictive processing and active inference, through trauma and relationships, through organizations and cultures, through

Meaning Is Not in Your Head; It's in the Pattern

Meaning Is Not in Your Head; It's in the Pattern

Where does meaning live? The obvious answer: in your head. Meaning is something mental, something inside, something that happens in brains. Words have meaning because we attach meanings to them. Experiences have meaning because we interpret them. The world is meaningless matter; meaning is what minds add. This obvious answer

The Algorithm That Thinks Like a Living Thing

The Algorithm That Thinks Like a Living Thing

What does it mean for something to be alive? Not just to exist, but to persist. To maintain itself against the forces that would dissolve it. To keep going when everything around it is trending toward chaos. Living things do this. They take in energy. They repair damage. They adapt

Why the Smartest AI Researchers Are Reading a British Neuroscientist

Why the Smartest AI Researchers Are Reading a British Neuroscientist

Something strange happened in artificial intelligence. For decades, AI research and neuroscience were strangers. Engineers built neural networks that bore only superficial resemblance to actual neurons. Neuroscientists studied brains without caring much about machine learning. The fields shared a name but not much else. Then a shift. The most important

ADHD Isn't an Attention Deficit: It's a Synchronization Problem

ADHD Isn't an Attention Deficit: It's a Synchronization Problem

The name is a lie. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder suggests a shortage of attention. But ask anyone with ADHD: the problem isn't lack of attention. Often, it's too much. Attention that floods toward whatever's interesting. Attention that locks on so completely that hours vanish.

The Autistic Brain Isn't Broken—It's Tuned Differently

The Autistic Brain Isn't Broken—It's Tuned Differently

There's a way of experiencing the world that notices everything. Every hum of a fluorescent light. Every flicker at the edge of vision. Every shift in someone's tone of voice. Every inconsistency in what they say versus what they do. Every pattern in the data. Every