Maxwell J D Ramstead
Ramstead worked on the free-energy principle as a way to describe living systems at several scales. With Friston and others, they applied it to niche construction and to the nesting of Markov blankets in organisms135. The 2019 paper admits the framework had not yet been shown to reach societies or ecosystems. Levin later cited that paper67.
- In the library
- 3 works, named in 5 passages elsewhere
Niche construction and evolution
In a 2018 paper with Constant, Veissière, Campbell and Friston, Ramstead took up a dispute in evolutionary biology. The authors report that proponents of the modern synthesis are critical of niche construction theory, partly because they treat causation in evolution as one-directional2. Their own proposal rests on a free-energy functional. They state that the same functional is minimized at different spatial and temporal scales, depending on how the system is defined1. This lets one formalism cover cells, brains and institutions.
Free energy and Markov blankets
In the 2018 paper with Badcock and Friston, free energy is presented as a general account of living systems3. The authors explain that free energy is a functional of beliefs encoded by internal states. It equals surprise when those beliefs match the posterior over external states. Otherwise it sets an upper bound on surprise4. They then describe organisms as populations of Markov blankets nested in space and time, occupying nested regions of a shared phase space5.
Limits and later use
The 2019 paper, with Constant, Badcock and Friston, states a limit of the earlier framework. It could not yet individuate systems above the level of the organism, such as societies or ecosystems6. Critics had asked whether the Markov blanket formalism fits such scales. Later, Levin listed active inference, with Ramstead et al. 2019 among its sources, as a framework to merge with his own7. He also cited the paper for goal-directedness even in particles8.
This construction means that the same free-energy functional is minimized at different spatial and temporal scales, depending on how the system is defined.
Constant A, Ramstead MJD, Veissière SPL, Campbell JO…, 2018 · A variational approach to niche construction · open at passage 25Proponents of the MS are critical of NCT. Part of their motivation is that they understand causation in evolution as unidirectional.
Constant A, Ramstead MJD, Veissière SPL, Campbell JO…, 2018 · A variational approach to niche construction · open at passage 12We begin by describing how the FEP offers a plausible, mechanistic EST that applies to living systems in general.
Ramstead MJD, Badcock PB, Friston KJ, 2018 · Answering Schrödinger's question: A free-energy formulation · open at passage 4When these beliefs are equal to the posterior probability over external states, free energy becomes equivalent to surprise. Otherwise, it is always slightly greater than (i.e., imposes an upper bound on) surprise.
Ramstead MJD, Badcock PB, Friston KJ, 2018 · Answering Schrödinger's question: A free-energy formulation · open at passage 12our ontology comprises populations of both spatially and temporally nested Markov blankets that occupy hierarchically nested regions in the total phase space of living systems.
Ramstead MJD, Badcock PB, Friston KJ, 2018 · Answering Schrödinger's question: A free-energy formulation · open at passage 14It has yet to offer a way to individuate systems at scales beyond that of the organism acting in its environment; e.g., large-scale ensembles such as societies or ecosystems
Ramstead MJD, Constant A, Badcock PB, Friston KJ, 2019 · Variational ecology and the physics of sentient systems · open at passage 4merging with other frameworks such as Active Inference (Friston, 2013; Badcock et al., 2019; Ramstead et al., 2019)
Levin M, 2022 · Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework… · open at passage 118as the minimal degree of internal self-determination and goal-directedness is apparently present even in particles (Feynman, 1942; Georgiev and Georgiev, 2002;
Levin M, 2022 · Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework… · open at passage 105
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