Perception and the Prediction Machine

The main approach that I'm taking and my colleagues in the lab at Sussex and many other labs too is this idea that the brain at a very deep level is a prediction machine. The purpose of perception in all its variety, whether it's perception of the world or perception of the self, is not to figure out accurately what's out there but to help the organism stay alive. Everything that we consciously perceive has to be a kind of inference, a brain-based best guess about the causes of sensory signals. These sensory signals don't even come with labels on them - they're all just electrical signals.