<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp849d6ba5yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div id="ydp849d6ba5yiv6569987865"><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;" class="ydp849d6ba5yiv6569987865ydp623e2574yahoo-style-wrap"><div><div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><div>Neural Mechanisms Online</div><div>(<a href="https://www.neuralmechanisms.org/" style="color:rgb(17, 85, 204);text-decoration-line:underline;" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">website</a>)</div></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><b><br></b></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><font size="2"><b style="color:rgb(255, 0, 0);">12 May 2023<br></b></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><b>Webinar</b><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:small;"><font color="#ff0000" style="background-color:inherit;"><b>h16-18 CEST / </b></font></span><span style="font-size:small;"><font color="#ff0000" style="background-color:inherit;"><b>h14-16</b> <b>GMT<br></b></font></span></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:small;"><font color="#000000" style="background-color:inherit;">(</font></span><a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20220512T140000&p1=tz_gmt&p2=254" style="color:rgb(17, 85, 204);text-decoration-line:underline;" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>check your local time here</i></a>)</div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;" dir="ltr"><div><br></div><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="0" style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><tbody><tr style="font-family:ciscosansttregular, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><td valign="top" nowrap="" style="margin:0px;"><div>Join at<br></div><a href="https://unito.webex.com/unito-en/j.php?MTID=mf2d4539374fb11ba446615ef12ed2fb1" style="color:rgb(17, 85, 204);text-decoration-line:underline;" class="ydp849d6ba5yiv6569987865" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://unito.webex.com/unito-en/j.php?MTID=mf2d4539374fb11ba446615ef12ed2fb1</a><div><i style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:normal;">the link will be activated 10 mins before the talk</i></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;text-align:center;"><br></div><div style="font-size:small;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;text-align:center;"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif"><b><u>Karl J. FRISTON<br></u></b></font></div><div style="font-size:small;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;text-align:center;">(University College London)<span style="color:rgb(42, 42, 42);font-family:news cycle;font-size:15px;text-align:right;"></span></div><div style="font-size:small;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="font-size:small;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align:center;"><font size="4"><b><i>The physics of sentience</i></b></font></div><p style="margin:0px;" class="ydp849d6ba5yiv6569987865ydpb36ea284MsoNormal"><br></p><p style="margin:0px;text-align:center;" class="ydp849d6ba5yiv6569987865ydpb36ea284MsoNormal">This presentation offers a heuristic proof (and simulations of a primordial soup) suggesting that life—or biological self-organization—is an inevitable and emergent property of any (weakly mixing) random dynamical system that possesses a Markov blanket. This conclusion is based on the following arguments: if a system can be differentiated from its external milieu, heat bath or environment, then the system’s internal and external states must be conditionally independent. These independencies induce a Markov blanket that separates internal and external states. This separation means that internal states will appear to minimize a free energy functional of blanket states – via a variational principle of stationary action. Crucially, this equips internal states with an information geometry, pertaining to probabilistic beliefs <i>about</i> something; namely external states. Interestingly, this free energy is the same quantity that is optimized in Bayesian inference and machine learning (where it is known as an evidence lower bound). In short, internal states (and their Markov blanket) will appear to model—and act on—their world to preserve their functional and structural integrity. This leads to a Bayesian mechanics, which can be neatly summarised as self-evidencing.</p><div><br></div></div></div><br></div><div><br></div><div class="ydp849d6ba5yiv6569987865ydp623e2574signature"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>