Overview
This comment on Friston et al.'s 'Path integrals, particular kinds, and strange things' connects the typology of particular kinds to Aaron Sloman's 1984 project of mapping 'mindspace.' The paper argues that the proposed typology—based on particle dynamics and generative model structure—provides a principled, non-anthropocentric contribution to the cartography of possible minds. Active Inference provides a framework for measuring, modeling, and implementing such minds, while the FEP provides firs
Overview source: Curated paper metadata.
Methods and contributions
Read the source for the full argument, qualifications, and evidence.
Findings and contributions
- The authors argue that the typology of particular kinds in the target paper can be seen as a possible contribution to mapping the space of possible minds.
- They propose that as particles move from inert to active, conservative, and strange, they can be seen as moving toward higher values on Gray et al.'s 'agency' axis.
- They suggest the typology of particular kinds can serve as an exemplar and underlying scheme for building or revising taxonomies of mind more precisely.
- From their teaching, the authors report finding the target paper's scope and visual representations almost uniquely relevant in educational settings.
Methods
- Comparing Friston et al.'s particular kinds with existing taxonomies of minds — The comment sets the target paper's typology of particular kinds against mindspace proposals by Sloman, Gray et al., Deacon, and Yudkowsky as signposts for future research.
- Reflection from teaching 5 cohorts of Active Inference textbook groups — The authors draw on their experience learning and teaching the 2022 Active Inference textbook at the Active Inference Institute to judge the target paper's educational value.
Summary sources: Paper metadata and evidence · Extracted source text.
Document downloads
PDFs are hosted here; supporting sources may use pinned archives.
- 2023_GuidedTourMinds.pdf PDF · 0.29 MiB · extracted-text source
Citation
Citation metadata follows the unified bibliography.
Catalog details and resources
Related works
Ranked by recorded methods, topics, contributors and associated software, with contributor roles and domain-only matches labelled. Metadata overlap is not a citation or a scientific equivalence.