Maxwell Ramstead's guest appearances

Maxwell Ramstead

Talk of Today

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Kevin Kelly

Rick Strassman

Nora Bateson

Michael Garfield

Jonathan Wolff

Aubrey de Grey

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Paul Davies

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Amal Graafstra

Liz Specht

Geoffrey West

Jess McIver

Adrian Bejan

OwlTail

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB  Join us for a fascinating discussion of the free energy principle with Dr. Maxwell Ramsted, a leading thinker exploring the intersection of math, physics, and philosophy and Director of Research at VERSES. The FEP was proposed by renowned neuroscientist Karl Friston, this principle offers a unifying theory explaining how systems maintain order and their identity.  The free energy principle inverts traditional survival logic. Rather than asking what behaviors promote survival, it queries - given things exist, what must they do? The answer: minimizing free energy, or "surprise." Systems persist by constantly ensuring their internal states match anticipated states based on a model of the world. Failure to minimize surprise leads to chaos as systems dissolve into disorder.  Thus, the free energy principle elucidates why lifeforms relentlessly model and predict their surroundings. It is an existential imperative counterbalancing entropy. Essentially, this principle describes the mind's pursuit of harmony between expectations and reality. Its relevance spans from cells to societies, underlying order wherever longevity is found.  Our discussion explores the technical details and philosophical implications of this paradigm-shifting theory. How does it further our understanding of cognition and intelligence? What insights does it offer about the fundamental patterns and properties of existence? Can it precipitate breakthroughs in disciplines like neuroscience and artificial intelligence?  Dr. Ramstead completed his Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 2019, with frequent research visits to UCL in London, under the supervision of the world’s most cited neuroscientist, Professor Karl Friston (UCL).  YT version: https://youtu.be/8qb28P7ksyE https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=ILpGOMkAAAAJ&amp;hl=frhttps://spatialwebfoundation.org/team/maxwell-ramstead/https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwell-ramstead-43a1991b7/https://twitter.com/mjdramstead  VERSES AI: https://www.verses.ai/  Intro: Tim Scarfe (Ph.D) Interviewer: Keith Duggar (Ph.D MIT)  TOC: 0:00:00 - Tim Intro 0:08:10 - Intro and philosophy 0:14:26 - Intro to Maxwell 0:18:00 - FEP 0:29:08 - Markov Blankets 0:51:15 - Verses AI / Applications of FEP 1:05:55 - Potential issues with deploying FEP 1:10:50 - Shared knowledge graphs 1:14:29 - XRisk / Ethics 1:24:57 - Strength of Verses 1:28:30 - Misconceptions about FEP, Physics vs philosophy/criticism 1:44:41 - Emergence / consciousness  References: Principia Mathematica https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30567249049  Andy Clark's paper "Whatever Next? Predictive Brains, Situated Agents, and the Future of Cognitive Science" (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2013) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23663408/  "Math Does Not Represent" by Erik Curiel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_T20HAzyY  A free energy principle for generic quantum systems (Chris Fields et al) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.15242.pdf  Designing explainable artificial intelligence with active inference https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.04025  Am I Self-Conscious? (Friston) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00579/full  The Meta-Problem of Consciousness https://philarchive.org/archive/CHATMO-32v1  The Map-Territory Fallacy Fallacy https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.06924  A Technical Critique of Some Parts of the Free Energy Principle - Martin Biehl et al https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.06408  WEAK MARKOV BLANKETS IN HIGH-DIMENSIONAL, SPARSELY-COUPLED RANDOM DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS - DALTON A R SAKTHIVADIVEL https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.07620.pdf

Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/mlst" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/mlst</a> Discord: <a href="https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB</a> Join us for a fascinating discussion of the free energy principle with Dr. Maxwell Ramsted, a leading thinker exploring the intersection of math, physics, and philosophy and Director of Research at VERSES. The FEP was proposed by renowned neuroscientist Karl Friston, this principle offers a unifying theory explaining how systems maintain order and their identity. The free energy principle inverts traditional survival logic. Rather than asking what behaviors promote survival, it queries - given things exist, what must they do? The answer: minimizing free energy, or "surprise." Systems persist by constantly ensuring their internal states match anticipated states based on a model of the world. Failure to minimize surprise leads to chaos as systems dissolve into disorder. Thus, the free energy principle elucidates why lifeforms relentlessly model and predict their surroundings. It is an existential imperative counterbalancing entropy. Essentially, this principle describes the mind's pursuit of harmony between expectations and reality. Its relevance spans from cells to societies, underlying order wherever longevity is found. Our discussion explores the technical details and philosophical implications of this paradigm-shifting theory. How does it further our understanding of cognition and intelligence? What insights does it offer about the fundamental patterns and properties of existence? Can it precipitate breakthroughs in disciplines like neuroscience and artificial intelligence? Dr. Ramstead completed his Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 2019, with frequent research visits to UCL in London, under the supervision of the world’s most cited neuroscientist, Professor Karl Friston (UCL). YT version: <a href="https://youtu.be/8qb28P7ksyE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8qb28P7ksyE</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=ILpGOMkAAAAJ&amp;hl=frhttps://spatialwebfoundation.org/team/maxwell-ramstead/https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwell-ramstead-43a1991b7/https://twitter.com/mjdramstead" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=ILpGOMkAAAAJ&amp;hl=frhttps://spatialwebfoundation.org/team/maxwell-ramstead/https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwell-ramstead-43a1991b7/https://twitter.com/mjdramstead</a> VERSES AI: <a href="https://www.verses.ai/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.verses.ai/</a> Intro: Tim Scarfe (Ph.D) Interviewer: Keith Duggar (Ph.D MIT) TOC: 0:00:00 - Tim Intro 0:08:10 - Intro and philosophy 0:14:26 - Intro to Maxwell 0:18:00 - FEP 0:29:08 - Markov Blankets 0:51:15 - Verses AI / Applications of FEP 1:05:55 - Potential issues with deploying FEP 1:10:50 - Shared knowledge graphs 1:14:29 - XRisk / Ethics 1:24:57 - Strength of Verses 1:28:30 - Misconceptions about FEP, Physics vs philosophy/criticism 1:44:41 - Emergence / consciousness References: Principia Mathematica <a href="https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30567249049" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30567249049</a> Andy Clark's paper "Whatever Next? Predictive Brains, Situated Agents, and the Future of Cognitive Science" (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2013) <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23663408/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23663408/</a> "Math Does Not Represent" by Erik Curiel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_T20HAzyY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_T20HAzyY</a> A free energy principle for generic quantum systems (Chris Fields et al) <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.15242.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.15242.pdf</a> Designing explainable artificial intelligence with active inference <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.04025" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.04025</a> Am I Self-Conscious? (Friston) <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00579/full" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00579/full</a> The Meta-Problem of Consciousness <a href="https://philarchive.org/archive/CHATMO-32v1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://philarchive.org/archive/CHATMO-32v1</a> The Map-Territory Fallacy Fallacy <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.06924" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.06924</a> A Technical Critique of Some Parts of the Free Energy Principle - Martin Biehl et al <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.06408" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.06408</a> WEAK MARKOV BLANKETS IN HIGH-DIMENSIONAL, SPARSELY-COUPLED RANDOM DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS - DALTON A R SAKTHIVADIVEL <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.07620.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.07620.pdf</a>

Dr. MAXWELL RAMSTEAD - The Physics of Survival

The Free Energy Principle is a formal description of how life resist entropy across scales by minimising surprise. Surprise here being an information-theoretic view of how unlikely a particular sensory state of an organism is, not the psychological phenomenon of surprise — though they are definitely linked. The free energy principle describes how organisms attempt to reduce the difference between their model of the world and their perception of it.    Joining me to shed light on this topic is Maxwell Ramstead. Maxwell is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and at the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University. He has coauthored several papers in leading journals, which exploring the applications of the free energy principle to the dynamics of cognition and the mind, phenomenology, ecology, and socio-cultural systems.    In our conversation, we cover:    - What is the Free Energy Principle   - What is active inference   - The 4 E A approach to cognition (embedded, embodied, enactive, extended and affective)   - Entropy   - Potential societal implications of the Free Energy Principle    Support this podcastSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

The Free Energy Principle is a formal description of how life resist entropy across scales by minimising surprise. Surprise here being an information-theoretic view of how unlikely a particular sensory state of an organism is, not the psychological phenomenon of surprise — though they are definitely linked. The free energy principle describes how organisms attempt to reduce the difference between their model of the world and their perception of it. Joining me to shed light on this topic is Maxwell Ramstead. Maxwell is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and at the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University. He has coauthored several papers in leading journals, which exploring the applications of the free energy principle to the dynamics of cognition and the mind, phenomenology, ecology, and socio-cultural systems. In our conversation, we cover: - What is the Free Energy Principle - What is active inference - The 4 E A approach to cognition (embedded, embodied, enactive, extended and affective) - Entropy - Potential societal implications of the Free Energy Principle <a href="https://www.patreon.com/samhbarton" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Support this podcast</a> Support this podcast at — <a href="https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations</a>

The Free Energy Principle with Dr. Maxwell Ramstead