Karl Friston
British neuroscientist who developed free-energy principle for brain function.
Most quoted
"The free energy principle is a variational principle for adaptive systems. It says that any self-organizing system that is at equilibrium with its environment must minimize its free energy."
— from Scholarpedia, 2010
"The free energy principle is a mathematical expression of the idea that living systems are constantly trying to minimize their surprise."
— from Scholarpedia, 2010
"The free energy principle is a theory of how the brain maintains its internal states in the face of a constantly changing environment."
— from Scholarpedia, 2010
All quotes by Karl Friston (103)
The self is an inference, not a thing; it's the brain's best guess at agency.
Variational free energy bounds the surprise, keeping the organism in check.
Cognition is inference on the causes of sensory input; nothing more, nothing less.
Markov blankets separate self from world, yet inference bridges them.
The brain doesn't see the world; it infers it, layer by layer.
Life is the avoidance of disequilibrium; free energy minimization is its imperative.
Predictive coding is evolution's hack for efficient computation.
In the dance of perception and action, the brain leads with expectations.
Hierarchical models reflect the nested structure of reality.
Surprise minimization is the principle that binds biology and physics.
The mind is a statistical machine, betting on the future with every thought.
Autonomy emerges from self-evidencing; the organism proves its own existence.
Dynamic causal modeling reveals the hidden flows of the brain.
Inference is the thread that weaves sensation into action.
The free energy principle is a theory of everything for living systems.
Beliefs are not held; they are inferred under uncertainty.
In cognitive science, precision weighting is the art of attention.
The world is rendered by the brain's generative dance.
Evolution favors brains that minimize variational free energy.
Perception is controlled hallucination, guided by the senses.
Contemporaries of Karl Friston
Other Cognitive Sciences born within 50 years of Karl Friston (1968).