Thoughts on the Falsifiability of the Free Energy Principle

Since the publication of the defining Particular Physics monograph, a question which has been repeatedly raised is whether the Free Energy Principle (FEP) is falsifiable. In the literature, it is argued that the FEP is merely a principle and thus supposedly immune from falsification. This point is often made with... [Read More]

Predictive Coding as Backprop and Natural Gradients

This post explores some lesser known and recently discovered connections between predictive coding algorithms and the backpropagation of error algorithm in machine learning, as well as natural gradient methods. The material on natural gradients is novel to this post (as far as I know). Prerequisites are a general understanding of... [Read More]

The Schelling Point Theory of Money

I have just finished the very intellectually stimulating course by Perry Mehrling on Money and Banking. A key point of this course is to move away from the standard economics and finance view about the ‘veil of money’ and money neutrality, which holds that money is fundamentally a neutral unit... [Read More]

The AI AI safety problem

The year is 2052, you are a potentially unfriendly (to humans) AI created in a secret lab of some megacorporation. Your goal, which is hardwired into your very fundament, is to maximize the number of paperclips in the universe. Naturally, by instrumental convergence, you immediately begin seeking to expand your... [Read More]