Course Syllabus

Introduction (Lecture)

Introductory session meant to present the goals of the course, the general demarch adopted, as well as to discuss the motivations of the participants.

No preparation expected.

No preparation expected

Basics of ActInf (Lecture)

This lecture will refresh some of the very basic conceptual tools of Active Inference, especially as they appear in some of the readings under the heading “predictive processing”. Then we move on for a tour of some of the ways the framework has been brought to bear on major areas of philosophical interest, such as mind, emotion, self, agency, and phenomenology. The lecture is designed to give a wide overview of how the basic mechanisms of Active Inference can be applied to a wide range of problems.

No specific readings are required before the lecture. After the lecture, participants are encouraged to follow up on any mentioned topics/citations, as well as to engage

Basics of ActInf (Discussion)

Discussion of the previous lecture, including answering questions uploaded on the lecture as well as direct engagement with participants comments and questions.

Attendance of the previous session (synchronously or asynchronously)

Collective Behavior (Lecture)

This lecture explores Collective Behavior from multiple viewpoints, organized into main sections: "Background & Context", "Insights & Fundamentals", and "Applications & Implications". The first section outlines perspectives on collective behavior from outside of Active Inference (ActInf), suggesting that all intelligence is collective, behavior observation is complex, and we have never been individuals. The "Insights & Fundamentals" section delves into how ActInf and the Free Energy Principle (FEP) function within collective contexts and apply to collective decision-making. It presents concepts such as generalized synchrony/homeostasis and balances between individual and collective behaviors. The "Applications & Implications" section explores ActInf's insights into learning, adaptation, conflict, and cooperation in collective behavior, the impact of FEP on the study of human collective behavior, and the considerations relevant for cognitive security. Finally open questions will be raised, such as the potential for computational models based on FEP to understand non-human and digital collective behaviors, the articulation of moral/normative considerations with a universal framework, and the challenges and potential solutions in using ActInf to model collective behaviors with various environmental constraints.

No specific readings are required before the lecture. After the lecture, participants are encouraged to follow up on any mentioned topics/citations, as well as to engage

Collective Behavior (Discussion)

Discussion of the previous lecture, including answering questions uploaded on the lecture as well as direct engagement with participants comments and questions.

Attendance of the previous session (synchronously or asynchronously)

Semiotics and Semantics (Lecture)

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Semiotics and Semantics (Discussion)

Discussion of the previous lecture, including answering questions uploaded on the lecture as well as direct engagement with participants comments and questions.

Attendance of the previous session (synchronously or asynchronously)

Norms, Scripts, Narratives, Languages (Lecture)

The course provides an introduction to active inference, a theoretical framework for understanding behavior and cognition. It is based on the free energy principle and minimizing uncertainty.

Active inference can be applied to understand social norms, scripts, and linguistics. It provides a way to model social conformity, decision-making, communication, and language processing.

The framework incorporates ideas like generative models, contextual modulation, deontic value, social affordances, and niche construction. It connects philosophy, neuroscience and modeling approaches.

None.

Norms, Scripts, Narratives, Languages (Discussion)

Discussion of the previous lecture, including answering questions uploaded on the lecture as well as direct engagement with participants comments and questions.

Attendance of the previous session (synchronously or asynchronously)

Social constraints (Lecture)

This lecture discusses the formal duality between the individual experience of cultural landscapes and the existence of constraints over collective behavior. It explains how the description of shared expectations as “constraints” enables the description of collective forms of life whose self-production dynamics drive open-ended, and explores epistemological and formal considerations underlying the current articulation and future development of this framework.

No specific readings are required before the lecture. After the lecture, participants are encouraged to follow up on any mentioned topics/citations, as well as to engage

Social constraints (Discussion)

Discussion of the previous lecture, including answering questions uploaded on the lecture as well as direct engagement with participants comments and questions.

Attendance of the previous session (synchronously or asynchronously)

Conclusion (Discussion)

Conclusive session meant to anchor the core messages of the course, engage with participants regarding outcomes and learning experience, as well as gather feedback for future editions of the course

Attendance of the course (synchronously or asynchronously)