# The Brain Predicts Its Sensory World by Andy Clark > “The brain uses stored knowledge about the structure of the world and the probabilities of one state or event following another to generate a prediction of what the current state is likely to be, given the previous one and this body of knowledge.” > **— Andy Clark**, *2011 Edge Annual Question, response passage* ## Sources and Context - **Direct publication and locator:** [Predictive Coding — Andy Clark](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10404) — 2011 Annual Question response, contiguous sentence(s) within the representative extract. - **Exact original excerpt:** “The basic idea is simple. It is that to perceive the world is to successfully predict our own sensory states. The brain uses stored knowledge about the structure of the world and the probabilities of one state or event following another to generate a prediction of what the current state is likely to be, given the previous one and this body of knowledge. Mismatches between the prediction and the received signal generate error signals that nuance the prediction or (in more extreme cases) drive learning and plasticity.” - **Context and editing:** The poster takes Clark’s complete explanatory sentence. The preceding sentences identify predictive coding as the framework; his essay explains that mismatches generate error signals. No editorial words were inserted. - **Local Edge archive:** [[research/Edge 2011 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2011 Full Quotation Curation]], response EDGE2011-117. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Information Persistence in Complex Systems|Information Persistence in Complex Systems]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Greatest Transformation in Human History|The Greatest Transformation in Human History]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Predictive Processing|Predictive Processing]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Predictive Processing|Predictive Processing]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The brain uses stored knowledge about the structure of the world and the probabilities of one state or event following another to generate a prediction of what the current state is likely to be, given the previous one and this body of knowledge.” — Andy Clark, 2011 Edge Annual Question, response passage https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-andy-clark-brain-predicts-its-sensory-world ```