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Free energy and niches
In a 2018 paper with Constant, Veissière, Campbell and Friston, Ramstead helped recast niche construction in variational terms. The authors note that defenders of the modern synthesis see causation in evolution as running one way, from environment to genotype1. Their own account holds that one free-energy functional can be minimised at different spatial and temporal scales, depending on how the system is defined2. The examples given range from bacterial chemotaxis to learning in brains and institutional organisation.
Variational neuroethology
In Answering Schrödinger's question, Ramstead, Badcock and Friston joined the variational principle to Tinbergen's four research questions in biology. They named the result variational neuroethology3. Internal states encode beliefs about external states. When those beliefs match the posterior, free energy equals surprise; otherwise it bounds surprise from above4. The authors argued that organisms occupy hierarchically nested Markov blankets in a shared phase space5.
Scale, critique and reuse
The 2019 paper with Constant, Badcock and Friston admits that the framework had not yet individuated systems above the organism. It cites Bruineberg and Hesp, and Kirmayer, who asked whether the Markov blanket formalism fits societies or ecosystems6. It also restates the partition in which internal states track external causes and action couples back to them7. Levin's 2022 TAME paper cites it among sources for minimal goal-directedness, even in particles8.
Proponents 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 12This 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 25We then combine this variational principle with Tinbergen's four research questions in biology to describe a new scientific ontology
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.
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 14This issue was cogently articulated by Bruineberg and Hesp [36] and Kirmayer [37] in their critique of VNE.
Ramstead MJD, Constant A, Badcock PB, Friston KJ, 2019 · Variational ecology and the physics of sentient systems · open at passage 4The ensuing self-organisation of internal states then corresponds to perception, while action couples brain states back to external states.
Ramstead MJD, Constant A, Badcock PB, Friston KJ, 2019 · Variational ecology and the physics of sentient systems · open at passage 12the minimal degree of internal self-determination and goal-directedness is apparently present even in particles
Levin M, 2022 · Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework… · open at passage 105
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