The Knowing Universe

by John O Campbell and John O. Campbell

A largely unheralded scientific revolution is sweeping through the research community. One aspect of this revolution is a growing body of research centred on Karl Friston's notions of the Bayesian Brain and the Free Energy Principle and based on this work, Friston is rated the most influential neuroscientist of our day. His research reveals that the computation of Bayesian inferences, or the solving of mathematical relationships between hypotheses and evidence, is the brain's main problem-solving mechanism. As documented in the flood of research papers currently published at a rate of over one thousand a year referring to the free energy principle, it appears the brain uses Bayesian inference over and over again to solve the many puzzles confronting it, for example, the puzzle of inferring sight from a stream of sensory nerve impulses.
But, the full scope of Friston's theories is not constrained to brains or even biology; it also includes physics and culture. Even though his work has captured the imagination of researchers in many fields, its universal theoretical scope has mainly gone unnoted. But given the general scientific consensus that information is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of existence, the emergence of universalist explanations, featuring information's role in achieving existence, are perhaps inevitable.
Friston's universalist claim is that all existence follows a remarkably similar path. The same well-documented inferential process that brains perform over and over again is performed over and over again by everything. Existence is an inferential process in which the experience of entities in achieving and sustaining existence accumulates in repositories of evidence-based knowledge. And this evolving knowledge serves as a model for bringing the next generation of entities into existence.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09JJFF771
• ISBN13: 9798538325535
• Release Date: October 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"