Executive Summary

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Absolute truth - universal, singular, immutable - is inherent in math and physics, as in laws of symmetry underlying perspectives. It is foundational in extending science to investigate subjectivity. It is ubiquitous for religious worldviews but is a taboo topic in academia. How can we scientifically ground absolute truth?

Active Inference is a thriving new framework in the life sciences, consciousness studies, and AI that is modeling subjectivity in terms of degrees of certainty, including absolute certainty. Active Inference is amenable to absolute truth as a stance which is taken up or not, viable or not, inescapable or not.

Intuition in absolute truth is developed by independent thinkers on the academic periphery as with Andrius Kulikauskas, who has introspected a language of conceptual structures.

The Active Inference Institute will build an interactive online encyclopedia to illustrate 30 conceptual structures with 3,000 examples from numerous theories, including Active Inference, interlinking them all.

We will organize a community of 300 researchers (diverse independent thinkers worldwide) who will contribute examples, explore connections, clarify validity, learn Active Inference and develop this language of wisdom.

Project Description

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Imagine an online interactive encyclopedia of 30 conceptual structures for formulating absolutes. An interface illustrates them with 3,000 examples, historical and contemporary, representing diverse thinkers, disciplines and cultures. A community fluent in this language of wisdom - 300 researchers, activists, independent thinkers - scientifically documents human experience and investigates the laws of life. Sir John Templeton’s dream comes true.

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Scientific advances in the life sciences have led to Active Inference, a theoretical framework for the free energy principle, which is a law of life introduced in 2006 by neuroscientist Karl Friston. The free energy principle asserts that the human brain, indeed, any living system minimizes surprise, the difference between internal models and external realities. These concepts are understood in terms of Bayesian statistics and thermodynamics, with applications to AI, robotics, psychology and sociology. Systems learn, updating models, or create, adjusting environments. As Jesus taught, what you find is what you love, and what you believe is what happens.

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Are we, and systems like us, simply fooling ourselves? The free energy principle is admittedly not falsifiable. It is both descriptive and normative. Similarly, Templeton declared that laws of life enforce themselves yet we may learn them or not and choose to live by them or not. How can we ever agree on laws of life, biological or spiritual, as absolute truths? We can first introspect the basic stances that we choose from, the conceptual structures they constitute, the constraints on our imaginations which, pragmatically, are absolute.

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Andrius Kulikauskas has developed a method of introspection which distinguishes three levels of awareness. Our Unconscious knows answers, our Conscious asks questions, and our Consciousness relates them with investigations. Templeton likewise distinguished our brains, our minds which control them, and the laws of life which our minds may embrace. Kulikauskas has us set aside answers and questions and focus on the underlying perspectives we may take. “Building character” supposes free will but also fate. “Learning” leverages a cycle of taking a stand, following through and reflecting. “Discovering your life’s purpose” presumes four levels of knowledge - whether, what, how, why. Kulikauskas has collected evidence for 30 such structures of perspectives. He will author articles describing each structure. We start with them in our search for absolutes.

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Daniel Friedman of the Active Inference Institute will organize a supportive team to collect examples illustrating these and additional stuctures. In the first year, Friedman will design a knowledge system, recruit enthusiasts and organize training. 5 of the most adept enthusiasts will help Kulikauskas train 25 project leaders and 125 contributors, all modestly funded. They will include experts in Active Inference (linking life sciences), advanced mathematics (versed in absolute truth) and ecological thinking (grounding morality). The Institute attracts life scientists, physicists, engineers, philosophers, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, educators, coders, activists and artists.

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In the second year, each project leader will lead a small team in a creative project to demonstrate fluency with these structures in their own worldview or scientific theory. The project may be an academic article, popular exposition, navigational tool, visualization, AI innovation, experiment, game, tutorial, campaign, video, podcast, art exhibit, short story etc. Project leaders will advise on the validity of the conceptual structures.

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The third year will focus on whatever resonates, facilitating participation by unpaid enthusiasts as they contribute more examples, foster transcultural discourse on absolutes, and provide feedback on validity. Friedman and Kulikauskas will review what was learned and develop further investigations with interested participants.

Statement of Significance

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Active inference is a theory explaining how any sentient living being interacts with its environment. This robust theory is part of a wider movement, which the Templeton Foundation has supported, to expand scientific discourse to include questions of why, causality, agency, purpose, sentience, consciousness, meditation and prayer. These expanding horizons lead to perhaps the greatest academic taboo, the concept of absolute truth, which inherently transcends academic distinctions. Absolute truth is the inevitable foundation for an overarching perspective, a divine view upon the purpose and meaning of life, which is what so many seek yet cannot investigate within contemporary science.

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Unfortunately, academic institutions are not in a position to investigate absolute truth, and their academics do not develop the intuition to think in terms of it, which requires a life of absolutely independent thinking. Support from the John Templeton Foundation enables us to develop an online encyclopedia which individuals can interact with to investigate whether, what, how and why conceptual structures are absolute, finding expression in all cultures, worldviews and disciplines. The resulting transcultural community is poised to investigate the laws of life.

Outputs

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The encyclopedia will have an online interactive interface to access at least 30 essays on conceptual structures and at least 3,000 illustrative examples with further links to Wikipedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and other sources. Examples will be navigated chronologically but also semantically. Search, query, analysis and summary tools will make creative use of AI, including for accessibility, math education, and language translation. The encyclopedia will function as a Theory Translator which appeals to conceptual structures to translate ontologies of hundreds of thinkers and disciplines.

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A knowledge system will organize the work flow, back end and front end, the inclusion of new material and critique and commentary on existing material. Training materials will explain how to use the system and also how to analyze and describe examples of conceptual structures. AI tools will facilitate the discovery on the web of new examples and diverse contributors.

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25 creative projects will showcase the use of the encyclopedia to explore and relate a diversity of schools of thought.

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The encyclopedia and all original content will be published in the Public Domain or under free software licenses unless noted otherwise. The database of examples will be exportable for all to use in their own best judgment.

Outcomes

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Our encyclopedia succeeds quantitatively - 30 essays, 3,000 examples, 25 creative projects - but moreover qualitatively, in that conceptual structures are inferred to be absolutely true, much as are mathematical structures or physical laws.

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Contributors of examples learn to catalogue them accurately, meaningfully, reproducibly. They discover patterns and are generally able to agree on them. They are satisfied with how individual structures are described in the essays.

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Conceptual structures fit together in a larger metaphysical system that Kulikauskas calls Wondrous Wisdom. Creative projects explore the validity of various aspects of this system. An investigative community works to clarify the system.

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This metaphysics helps individual theories such as Active Inference to clarify, enrich and expand their ontologies, spawn new expositions of key ideas, and grow their community of enthusiasts. Meaningful connections arise between theories, inspiring collaborations.

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The metaphysics is observed in the depths of advanced mathematics, in category theory and Bott periodicity.

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Transcultural dialogue on ecological thinking converges on morality as a ground for laws of life.

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Our encyclopedia brings forth a community of contributors, most of whom are unfunded.

Capacity for Success

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Daniel Friedman and Andrius Kulikauskas are experienced organizers of hundreds of independent thinkers for open access projects. They have PhDs in biology and mathematics, respectively. They are keen to organize this online encyclopedia seeded with Kulikauskas’s life work.

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Friedman is President of the Active Inference Institute, which creates textbooks, video streams, conferences, lectures, interviews, study groups and online spaces Friedman is a knowledge engineer who integrates these activities at the crossroads of life sciences, neuroscience, consciousness studies and AI.

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Kulikauskas, as a 6-year-old, dedicated himself before God to know everything and apply that knowledge usefully. In 1982, as a 17-year-old seeking absolute answers to life’s big questions, he started collecting conceptual structures, leading to 40 academic presentations, thousands of pages at www.ms.lt and math4wisdom.com, and 100 videos. He has prototyped a website TheoryTranslator.com

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Kulikauskas led Minciu Sodas, an online laboratory for independent thinkers, from 1998 to 2010, with 200 writers and 2,000 readers in 20 working groups. In 2022, he founded Math 4 Wisdom, an investigatory community for absolute truth, where Friedman leads the Knowledge Engineering Study Group.

Relation to Sir John Templeton's Donor Intent

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Project Relationship to Previous Grants

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Proposed Project Start Date

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August 2025

Proposed Project End Date

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End of July 2028

Primary Contact

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Project Leader

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CV/Resume attachment: [upload]

DAF

Project Co-Leader

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To the best of your knowledge, is the Project Leader or Project Co-Leader a JTF Trustee, Officer, or staff member, or related to a JTF Trustee, Officer or staff member as a spouse, sibling, child, or parent? * [Yes/No]

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No.

Additional Personnel

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The Active Inference Institute has links to a wealth of researchers around the world, with interests in diverse subjects. This is a fantastic opportunity to reach out further to include women and men from Latin America, China, India, Africa and other regions.

Kulikauskas leads a supportive investigatory community, Math 4 Wisdom. Here are two members from Ireland and Finland interested to participate as trainers, creative project leaders, contributors or volunteers:

Lucy Weir received her PhD in Philosophy in 2014. As an existential mentor, and author of three books, she addresses the ecological emergency, combining Zen, Yoga, systems theory, evolutionary biology and phenomenology in compassionate action.

Marcus Petz received his PhD in Social and Public Policy in 2023. He is an experienced networker, locally and globally, online and onsite. His PhD thesis overviewed community currencies as instruments for rural development.

History with the Foundation

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None specifically.

Applicant Country

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USA

Are you seeking funding as an individual?

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No.

Organization Name

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a) Active Inference Institute

b) Did this organization receive 50% or more of its annual funding in any one of the last three years from any combination of the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton World Charity Foundation or Templeton Religion Trust?: [No]

In what currency are you requesting support from the Foundation?

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USD

Request Amount

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605,000

Total Project Amount

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605,000

Brief Budget explanation and Sources of Additional Funding

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The budget is designed to nurture an online community by distributing resources as broadly as possible for maximum impact.

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Coleaders Friedman and Kulikauskas will each receive 3 years x $25,000 = $75,000 for their part-time work.

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They will be supported by 5 trainers receiving $15,000 each, 25 project leaders receiving $3,000 each and 125 contributors receiving $600 each.

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An additional $75,000 will be spent to facilitate participation by nonfunded contributors.

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Also, $100,000 will be spent on related Active Inference Institute activities such as workshops.

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The subtotal is $550,000 and 10% overhead yields a total of $605,000.