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Karl Friston on What Is Life, Consciousness, the meta-Hard Problem, and the Free Energy Principle

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

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Self-Assembly and Gradient Flow in Equilibrium Physics

In equilibrium physics, ink molecules diffuse down concentration gradients until reaching a state of equilibrium within the heat bath. However, special kinds of ink can gather themselves into a little globule, exhibiting self-assembly in the context of stirring the glass of water. This gathering up can be described as the Helmholtz D composition into two kinds of flow - gradient flow and soloidal flow. The gradient flow involves molecules gathering together towards the highest concentration or probabilities, leading to the emergence of an attracting set of states. On the other hand, the soloidal flow is a circular flow around the attracting set of states.

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