# Active Inference **Entity class:** Theoretical and computational framework **Domain:** Computational Neuroscience / Decision-Making / Control **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Established framework; applications remain domain-specific **Primary source article:** [[articles/The Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine|The Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine]] **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] --- ## Definition **Active inference** is a framework in which perception, learning, and action are described through inference under a generative model. Agents update beliefs from observations and select policies partly by their expected reduction of uncertainty and their relation to preferred outcomes. The framework is associated with [[wiki/Karl Friston|Karl Friston]] and overlaps with [[wiki/Predictive Processing|Predictive Processing]], but it should not be treated as a settled explanation of all cognition or as evidence that a particular engineered controller reproduces consciousness. ## Role in the Engine [[articles/The Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine|The Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine]] assigns active inference the role of loop-closure architecture. The proposed controller estimates the current perceptual state, selects a sparse stimulation policy expected to reduce uncertainty about a target state, observes the resulting neural and subjective response, and updates the next policy. This role is an application proposal. Active-inference models and adaptive BCI paradigms exist, but the complete [[wiki/Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine|Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine]] has not been demonstrated. ## Relationships - **Theoretical lineage:** [[wiki/Karl Friston|Karl Friston]] and [[wiki/Predictive Processing|Predictive Processing]]. - **Control application:** [[wiki/Closed-Loop BCI|Closed-Loop BCI]]. - **Article-specific application:** [[wiki/Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine|Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine]] and [[wiki/Perceptual Attractor Seeding|Perceptual Attractor Seeding]]. - **State representation:** [[wiki/Gaussian Perceptual Field|Gaussian Perceptual Field]]. - **Authority boundary:** [[wiki/Prediction Is Not Jurisdiction|Prediction Is Not Jurisdiction]] and [[wiki/Perceptual Sovereignty|Perceptual Sovereignty]]. - **Comparative-cognition context:** [[articles/We Were the Inference Machines First|The Inversion: We Were the Inference Machines First]] places active inference within the [[wiki/Inference Machine Inversion|Inference Machine Inversion]] while preserving embodiment, consciousness, and moral standing as separate questions. ## Sources and provenance - [Friston et al., “Active Inference: A Process Theory” (Neural Computation, 2017)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27870614/) — primary process-theory source. - [[articles/The Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine|The Closed-Loop Gaussian Sensorium Engine]] — source of the Engine-specific control role.