Research Article

Critique of the "Free Energy Principle" of Consciousness

Authors: Gerard Marx, Chaim Gilon.

DOI: 10.33425/2689-1050.1075

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Abstract

How does the viable brain transmute caloric energy into consciousness manifest as emotive memory? Apparently, the laws of physics and thermodynamics don't apply.

Here, we summarize and comment on a series of 4 articles published by Friston et al. which purports to rationalize the Free Energy concept applied to sentient consciousness. They suggest that perceptual processes are an emergent property of systems that conform to a free-energy principle and attempt a mathematical description of adaptive changes of biologic phase-boundaries.

We summarize and criticize each of the 4 articles and point out their deficiencies, notably the lack of physiologic relevance. We discuss the options available to the neural net to encode cognitive information and the possibility of epigenetic modifications on the process of memory. We conclude with a short discourse on the tripartite mechanism of neural memory, a biochemical description which conforms to the materials and processes available to neural cells.

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