Probabilistic reasoning in intelligent systems: networks of plausible inference

The held works cite Pearl (1988) as the source for the Markov blanket, a statistical boundary that renders interior states conditionally independent of exterior ones. Ciaunica et al. use it to define such boundaries, e.g. a cell membrane separating intracellular and extracellular dynamics. Fields et al. cite it for the conditional-independence condition, applying it to cell membranes as Bayesian active inference systems and to holographic screens. The book is cited for the concept, not discussed in itself.

Markov blankets are typically defined as a statistical boundary that separates two sets of states (e.g., a cellular membrane separating intracellular and extracellular dynamics) (Pearl, 1988;

Ciaunica A, Shmeleva EV, Levin M, 2023 · The brain is not mental! coupling neuronal and immune cellular… · open at passage 44

the cell membrane implements a Markov Blanket (MB) that renders its interior conditionally independent of its exterior (Pearl 1988; Clark 2017)

Fields C, Glazebrook JF, Levin M, 2021 · Minimal physicalism as a scale-free substrate for cognition and… · open at passage 8

Conditional independence of |A> from |B> and vice-versa is, however, also the MB condition (Pearl 1988; Friston 2013; Clark 2017); hence we can view B as an MB.

Fields C, Glazebrook JF, Levin M, 2021 · Minimal physicalism as a scale-free substrate for cognition and… · open at passage 31