Episode #40 (EN): Free Energy Principle with Karl Friston: Mathematical Modeling of Consciousness

ASEF Podcast

In this episode, Karl Friston unpacks the Free Energy Principle (https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2787), a unifying theory explaining how the brain minimizes surprise by constantly predicting and updating its model of the world.

We explore how this principle sheds light on perception, consciousness, and even psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia.

Karl also shares how his journey took him from psychiatry to neuroscience, driven by a passion for applying math and physics to deepen understanding of the brain.

The host of the science vertical on the ASEF Podcast: Tanja Janko

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:05 Understanding Free Energy in Neuroscience
08:10 Sensory Input, Surprise, and Prediction
13:23 Novelty and Active Inference
19:51 Markov Blanket Explained
25:44 Perception as Controlled Hallucination
28:25 Consciousness and Generalized Synchrony
33:12 Generative Model and Schizophrenia
36:39 Assembly Theory and the Free Energy Principle
44:15 Schizophrenia and Perception
48:10 Consciousness and AI Challenges
56:04 Karl Friston’s Personal Journey
59:14 Conscious AI and the Free Energy Principle
1:02:02 Future Directions in Research

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