Living beings do an extraordinary thing. By being alive they are resisting
the second law of thermodynamics. This law stipulates that open, living
systems tend to dissipation by the increase of entropy or chaos. From
minimal cognitive organisms like plants to more complex organisms equipped
with nervous systems, all living systems adjust and adapt to their
environments, thereby resisting the second law. Impressively, while all
animals cognitively enact and survive their local environments, more
complex systems do so also by actively constructing their local
environments, thereby not only defying the second law, but also
(evolution) selective properties. Because all living beings defy the
second law by adjusting and engaging with the environment, a prominent
question is how do living organisms persist while engaging in adaptive
exchanges with their complex environments? In this talk I will offer an
overview of how the Free Energy Principle (FEP) offers a principled
solution to this problem. The FEP prescribes that living systems maintain
themselves, i.e. defy the second law, by remaining in non-equilibrium
steady states by restricting themselves to a limited number of states and
minimising the free energy through selectively sampling sensory input. The
FEP has been widely applied to explain neurocognitive function and
embodied action, develop artificial intelligence and inspire
psychopathology models.

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