One Simple Idea

“We Model the World, and the World Models Us.”

-Karl Friston

This is a principal idea introduced in the Free Energy Principle developed by neuroscientist Karl Friston, though it is rooted in philosophical origins as many concepts are. Initially designed to study the brain, the Free Energy Principle is a formal statement that explains how any self-organizing living or non-living system that is at equilibrium with its environment must minimize its Free Energy.

And that necessitates generating Models of the World.

What are Models of the World?

They are Representations, as the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described in The World as Will and Representation. The world as we experience it,

“exists solely as ‘representation’ dependent on a cognizing subject, not as a world that can be considered to exist in itself – without the subjective experience within one’s mind.”

These concepts advance the works of thought leaders like Immanuel Kant, who was himself influenced by logicians and philosophers before his time.

Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?

While these thinkers reasoned logically and philosophically that such a system of representations must exist for our experience of the world, the Free Energy Principle attempts to objectify such frameworks through math and statistics.

Because this notion is so abstract, it is better elucidated through narrative, example, and analogy. For instance, 71% of the Earth’s surface is water. The most vital organs in our body also roughly have a 71% water composition:

It can be tempting to chalk this up to chance, but a deeper connection is realized through the lens of the Free Energy Principle.

So, what is Free Energy?

Put simply, it is the maximum amount of energy available for work. Within the Free Energy Principle framework, it is more specifically Variational Free Energy. The definition can be prohibitively technical because it includes terms like the Kullback-Leibler divergence, Laplace approximation, ensemble densities, and related jargon to formally state what is illustrated here (source):

Fortunately, there is an intuitive and conceptual way to understand these technicalities. Before diving into the Free Energy Principle to understand how Ethereum is a Model of the World, we will review a concept so fundamental that it pervades the Hierarchy of Sciences:

First principles thinking leads the way.