Computational Challenges for Brain Science and Medicine 11 August 2014 / Warsaw, Poland Richard Feynman What I cannot create, I do not understand. on his blackboard at the time of death in February 1988

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry. chapter 1, “The Law of Gravitation,” p. 34 Richard Feynman

Reinforcement learning, optimal control and utility theory Information theory and minimum redundancy Self-organisation, cybernetics, homoeostasis and autopoiesis Bayesian brain, predictive coding and active inference Value Surprise (free energy) Entropy Model evidence Pavlov Ashby Helmholtz Barlow Haken Perception Action Thorndike If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it...

Perception Action If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it... In the hands of a Feynman the [variational] technique works like a Latin charm; with ordinary mortals the result is a mixed bag. Forman S. Acton, Numerical Methods that Work (1970) p. 252 The brain minimises [variational] free energy.