Life As We Know It

Overview

Journal J R Soc Interface

Specialties Biology
Biomedical Engineering
Biophysics

Date 2013 Jul 5

PMID 23825119

Citations 188

Authors

Karl Friston

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This paper presents a heuristic proof (and simulations of a primordial soup) suggesting that life-or biological self-organization-is an inevitable and emergent property of any (ergodic) random dynamical system that possesses a Markov blanket. This conclusion is based on the following arguments: if the coupling among an ensemble of dynamical systems is mediated by short-range forces, then the states of remote systems must be conditionally independent. These independencies induce a Markov blanket that separates internal and external states in a statistical sense. The existence of a Markov blanket means that internal states will appear to minimize a free energy functional of the states of their Markov blanket. Crucially, this is the same quantity that is optimized in Bayesian inference. Therefore, the internal states (and their blanket) will appear to engage in active Bayesian inference. In other words, they will appear to model-and act on-their world to preserve their functional and structural integrity, leading to homoeostasis and a simple form of autopoiesis.

Citing Articles

As One and Many: Relating Individual and Emergent Group-Level Generative Models in Active Inference.

Thestrup Waade P, Lundbak Olesen C, Ehrenreich Laursen J, Nehrer S, Heins C, Friston K Entropy (Basel). 2025; 27(2).

PMID: 40003140 PMC: 11853804. DOI: 10.3390/e27020143.

Uncertainty minimization and pattern recognition in and .

Kuchling F, Singh I, Daga M, Zec S, Kunen A, Levin M J R Soc Interface. 2025; 22(223):20240645.

PMID: 39999882 PMC: 11858792. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2024.0645.

Life, its origin, and its distribution: a perspective from the Conway-Kochen Theorem and the Free Energy Principle.

Fields C, Levin M Commun Integr Biol. 2025; 18(1):2466017.

PMID: 39967856 PMC: 11834426. DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2025.2466017.

Shifting boundaries, extended minds: ambient technology and extended allostatic control.

White B, Clark A, Guenin-Carlut A, Constant A, Di Paolo L Synthese. 2025; 205(2):81.

PMID: 39926591 PMC: 11802705. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-025-04924-9.

Flow and intuition: a systems neuroscience comparison.

Kotler S, Parvizi-Wayne D, Mannino M, Friston K Neurosci Conscious. 2025; 2025(1):niae040.

PMID: 39777155 PMC: 11700884. DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae040.

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