用最大功耗偏离定义信息,打通意识理论与自组织学习的数学桥梁。
Information as Maximum-Caliber Deviation: A bridge between Integrated Information Theory and the Free Energy Principle

- 以最大功耗路径偏离定义信息,从变分原理推导出意识理论核心机制。
- 在马尔可夫链和伊辛模型中,信息等价于预测误差,支持神经实验观察。
- 为意识研究提供热力学与主动推断统一的数学基础,适合认知科学与神经建模者。
自由能原理(FEP)是描述自组织与学习的数学框架,而整合信息理论(IIT)则以不可简化的因果效应为核心,构建意识的计算本体。尽管两者在概念上已有统一尝试并得到实证支持,但缺乏严格的数学映射限制了其精确性与可检验性。本文提出:信息可定义为实际动态相对于有限时间窗内约束最大功耗(MaxCal)路径集合的偏离量ψ。在此定义下,IIT 3.0中的因果/效应谱直接源于MaxCal变分原理,使IIT的现象学计算可重新从约束熵最大化(CMEP)推导。该框架与主动推断数学对偶,且在马尔可夫链满足中心极限定理(CLT)及伊辛模型采用大偏差理论(LDT)时,信息ψ等价于预测误差,对应预测编码模型。这可能解释神经培养中Φ值呈现的“山形轨迹”现象。结果为FEP、IIT与基于涨落-耗散定理(FDT)违反的意识热力学框架提供了物理与数学基础,推动三者融合。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The Free Energy Principle (FEP) is a leading framework for mathematically modeling self-organization and learning, while Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is a computational ontology of consciousness oriented around irreducible cause and effect. While conceptual unifications have been proposed and appear to be supported by empirical findings, the absence of a rigorous mathematical mapping places upper bounds on their precision and testability. This work proposes that information can be defined as the deviation $ψ$ of realized dynamics from a constrained maximum-caliber (MaxCal) path ensemble over a finite time horizon. Under this definition, each of the cause/effect repertoires central to IIT 3.0 emerge directly from MaxCal variational principles, allowing IIT's phenomenological calculus to be re-derived from constrained entropy-maximization (CMEP). This framework supplies a theoretical bridge to active inference, which is mathematically dual to CMEP under Langevin dynamics, and offers a principled route for extending IIT to new dynamical regimes. When the approach is applied under the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) for Markov chains and via large deviations theory (LDT) to Ising models, information $ψ$ is shown to be equivalent to prediction error under accompanying predictive coding models. This may hold relevance to the ``hill-shaped trajectory'' of $Φ$ observed in neuronal cultures adapting to sensory inputs. Together, these results provide a physically and mathematically grounded rationale for studying the convergence of FEP, IIT, and thermodynamic frameworks of cognition such as recent work grounding consciousness in violations of the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem (FDT).
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