Active Inference: Applicability to Different Types of Social Organization Explained through Reference to Industrial Engineering and Quality Management
Year of publication
2021
Authors
Fox, Stephen
Abstract
Active inference is a physics of life process theory of perception, action and learning that is applicable to natural and artificial agents. In this paper, active inference theory is related to different types of practice in social organization. Here, the term social organization is used to clarify that this paper does not encompass organization in biological systems. Rather, the paper addresses active inference in social organization that utilizes industrial engineering, quality management, and artificial intelligence alongside human intelligence. Social organization referred to in this paper can be in private companies, public institutions, other for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, and any combination of them. The relevance of active inference theory is explained in terms of variational free energy, prediction errors, generative models, and Markov blankets. Active inference theory is most relevant to the social organization of work that is highly repetitive. By contrast, there are more challenges involved in applying active inference theory for social organization of less repetitive endeavors such as one-of-a-kind projects. These challenges need to be addressed in order for active inference to provide a unifying framework for different types of social organization employing human and artificial intelligence.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
Fox Stephen
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
Yes
Open access of publication channel
Fully open publication channel
License of the publisher’s version
CC BY
Self-archived
No
Article processing fee (EUR)
1333
Year of payment for the open publication fee
2021
Other information
Fields of science
Media and communications
Keywords
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Language
English
International co-publication
No
Co-publication with a company
No
DOI
10.3390/e23020198
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes