Kathryn Nave, an expert in the Free Energy Principle and active inference, discusses agency, teleology, causality, constraints, predictability, attractor sets, memory transformation, human agency, perception, predictive processing, and consciousness in living systems.

Kathryn Nave, an early career research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, dives deep into autonomy and agency in living systems. The discussion kicks off with enactivism, reinterpreting cognition as active engagement rather than mere thought. Nave explains the Free Energy Principle, linking energy, goals, and survival in living beings. She also contrasts living agents with machines, highlighting goal-directed behaviors even in simple organisms. Ultimately, the conversation uncovers complex interactions between perception, action, and the environment.