February 2023 Newsletter 🐃🎨🧭 Active Inference Institute

Welcome to the February 2023 updates from the Active Inference Institute.

We are in the swing of things during 2023, with many exciting developments.
Read on to see opportunities for your engagement and contribution.
Reply to this email or contact us if you have any questions or ideas.

Institute scale

• The Activities page has updated timing information on all the ongoing projects at the Institute. We have about 10 synchronous meetings of different types throughout the week — there are many ways to learn and apply Active Inference by contributing to research projects, textbook groups, livestreams, and more.

• We had our second official Board of Directors meeting this month.  

• We have elected our officers for 2023. Daniel is serving a dual role as President and Treasurer, Alex is our Vice President, and Bleu is our Secretary.

• We have also officially installed our new Scientific Advisory Board cohort. The Scientific Advisory Board is an informal group that provides the Institute with insight and expertise. If you are interested in joining the Scientific Advisory Board in a future cohort, please fill out this form.

Education

• During early 2023 we have two ongoing cohorts of the Parr et al. Active Inference Textbook Group. To register for an upcoming cohort, please see here for more information and the Textbook Group registration form.

• We are impressed with the progress of our first Fundamentals of Active Inference group, who is working through a textbook in progress by Sanjeev Namjoshi. See here for more information on this Fundamentals group.

• We are continuing to progress through the“Governing Continuous Transformation” textbook by Bijan Khezri.So far, BookStreams have covered the material presented in chapters 1-10 and there have been two live discussions with the author (see playlist here). Stay tuned as we expect to finish this series in March.

• We have had multiple great streams this month, including:

  • ActInf GuestStream #036.1, Ben Falandays, “A Potential Mechanism for Gibsonian Resonance”

  • ActInf GuestStream #037.1, Baba Brinkman — There is an Active Inference improvised rap at the end!

• The Active Inference Journal has been making tremendous progress in transcribing and archiving the texts of livestreams. We are working towards having augmented transcripts and translations for every livestream, as a resource for education and research. To stay updated with the current state of the Journal, see the Github repository of the Active Inference Journal (and if you are interested to see or improve on our methodology, see the Github repository of the Journal Utilities).

Research

• The Active Blockference project continues on an exciting path, curating implementations of Active Inference and integrating them with the complex systems simulation framework cadCAD.

• We continue development on the Active Inference Ontology, bringing accessibility and rigor to our growing field! Special progress during February 2023 was made on applications of the Active Inference Ontology to philosophical questions.

• Our Interns are pursuing their interesting research and application directions.  

How to participate in 2023

• See all participation onboarding information.

• Join the AII Discord to get involved with our community and join meetings in the voice chat.

• As a community-driven open science organization, we provide multiple opportunities for deepening your relationship with the Institute (Informal, Volunteer and Intern). All backgrounds, time zones, time availability, and level of familiarity with Active Inference are welcome and encouraged at AII.

• Volunteers are active learners who want to contribute to ongoing projects at the Institute. There is no limit to the type or number of projects that Volunteers can be involved in and drive (e.g., study groups, livestreams, marketing activities, publications, symposiums, applied research, etc.). If you are willing to join us, see more information and fill up the Volunteer registration form here.

• Interns are Volunteers who are looking for a more intense and structured experience with the Institute. For the duration of the internship, Interns will engage in both educational and research activities. Interns are assigned a mentor from the Institute. If you are interested in the internship, see more information and complete the internship registration form.

Let us know via reply to this email if you have any other ideas or questions.

Thank you for the regime of attention and see you around.

Active Inference Institute