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Blankets, heat, and why free energy has not illuminated the workings of the brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2022

Donald Spector
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY 14456, USAspector@hws.eduhttp://people.hws.edu/spector/
Daniel Graham
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY 14456, USAgraham@hws.eduhttp://people.hws.edu/graham/

Abstract

What can we hope to learn about brains from the free energy principle? In adopting the “primordial soup” physical model, Bruineberg et al. perpetuate the unsupported notion that the free-energy principle has a meaningful physical – and neuronal – interpretation. We examine how minimization of free energy arises in physical contexts, and what this can and cannot tell us about brains.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Buzsáki, G. (2019). The brain from inside out. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, D. (2021). An internet in your head. Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar