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Causal Entropic Forces

A. D. Wissner-Gross and C. E. Freer
Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 168702 – Published 19 April 2013
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Abstract

Recent advances in fields ranging from cosmology to computer science have hinted at a possible deep connection between intelligence and entropy maximization, but no formal physical relationship between them has yet been established. Here, we explicitly propose a first step toward such a relationship in the form of a causal generalization of entropic forces that we find can cause two defining behaviors of the human “cognitive niche”—tool use and social cooperation—to spontaneously emerge in simple physical systems. Our results suggest a potentially general thermodynamic model of adaptive behavior as a nonequilibrium process in open systems.

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  • Received 24 May 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.168702

© 2013 American Physical Society

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Model Suggests Link between Intelligence and Entropy

Published 19 April 2013

Dynamical systems that maximize their future possibilities behave in surprisingly “intelligent” ways.

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Authors & Affiliations

A. D. Wissner-Gross1,2,* and C. E. Freer3,†

  • 1Institute for Applied Computational Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2The Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 3Department of Mathematics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA

  • *To whom all correspondence should be addressed. alexwg@post.harvard.edu http://www.alexwg.org
  • Present address: Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

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Issue

Vol. 110, Iss. 16 — 19 April 2013

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