研究智能体在主动交互中如何高效提取能量,发现预测与遗忘需权衡。
The Work Capacity of Channels with Memory: Maximum Extractable Work in Percept-Action Loops
- 构建感知-行动回路的热力学框架,量化智能体可提取的最大功
- 在有可观测行动后果的环境中,最优策略需平衡预测与遗忘
- 揭示主动学习系统中预测能力与能量效率存在根本矛盾
预测未来观测在机器学习、生物学、经济学等领域至关重要,是变分自由能原理的核心,并基于热力学第二定律被证明是实现序列信息处理能量极限的必要条件。然而,复杂自适应系统不仅是预测机器,还能主动作用于环境并引发改变。本文建立感知-行动回路的热力学分析框架,研究动作与感知的同等热力学影响,引入‘功容量’概念——智能体可从环境提取功的最大速率。结果表明,在动作具有可观测后果的环境中,此前两种工作高效代理的设计原则(最大化预测能力、遗忘过去动作)均不再最优;相反,必须在预测与遗忘间权衡,因为记忆过往动作会减少可用自由能。这表明主动学习系统的热力学特性与被动观察存在根本差异,提示预测与能量效率可能相互冲突。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Predicting future observations plays a central role in machine learning, biology, economics, and many other fields. It lies at the heart of organizational principles such as the variational free energy principle and has even been shown -- based on the second law of thermodynamics -- to be necessary for reaching the fundamental energetic limits of sequential information processing. While the usefulness of the predictive paradigm is undisputed, complex adaptive systems that interact with their environment are more than just predictive machines: they have the power to act upon their environment and cause change. In this work, we develop a framework to analyze the thermodynamics of information processing in percept-action loops -- a model of agent-environment interaction -- allowing us to investigate the thermodynamic implications of actions and percepts on equal footing. To this end, we introduce the concept of work capacity -- the maximum rate at which an agent can expect to extract work from its environment. Our results reveal that neither of two previously established design principles for work-efficient agents -- maximizing predictive power and forgetting past actions -- remains optimal in environments where actions have observable consequences. Instead, a trade-off emerges: work-efficient agents must balance prediction and forgetting, as remembering past actions can reduce the available free energy. This highlights a fundamental departure from the thermodynamics of passive observation, suggesting that prediction and energy efficiency may be at odds in active learning systems.
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