Author: walterstiers

#sense-making, #Sensemaking, Active Inference, Biology of Information, Neurobiology/psychology

Active Construction of Past Episodes

“The active construction of past episodes” Episodic memories – declarative memories of past events, characterized by rich spatiotemporal context – play a central role in guiding perception and behaviour. Here, we advance a model that integrates episodic memories within the active inference framework. We describe how episodic memories are incorporated into the generative models used…

walterstiers

2026-03-16

#ActiveInference, #DecisionIntelligence, #HumanAI, #TheInformationLens

MOPGA: Multidisciplinary science

“Multidisciplinary science funding is more than ever a planetary priority: Reflections from the Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) program” Global change poses “wicked problems” that have become ever more complex, pervasive, and damaging. Developing innovative solutions increasingly require diverse research approaches. The Franco-German Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) program was designed to create a unique…

walterstiers

2026-03-14

#DecisionIntelligence, #ProblemSolvingMind, #TheInformationLens

Wise Machines

“Imagining and building wise machines: the centrality of AI metacognition” Although artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly smart, its wisdom has not kept pace. In this opinion article, we examine what is known about human wisdom and sketch a vision of its AI counterpart. We introduce human wisdom as strategies for solving intractable problems—those outside…

walterstiers

2026-03-13

#Sensemaking, AI, Biology of Information, Information Technology, Practical Wisdom

#DecisionIntelligence, #HumanAI, #TheInformationLens, AI, artificial-intelligence, technology

A generic self-learning emotional framework for machines

“A generic self-learning emotional framework for machines” In nature, intelligent living beings have developed emotions to modulate their behavior as a fundamental evolutionary advantage. However, researchers seeking to endow machines with this advantage lack a clear theory from cognitive neuroscience describing emotional elicitation from first principles, namely, from raw observations to specific affects. As a…

walterstiers

2026-03-13

Biology of Information, Life Ideas, Social-Technical

#DecisionIntelligence, #TheInformationLens, #Neuroscience, health, mental-health, consciousness

Linking fast and slow

“Linking fast and slow: The case for generative models” A pervasive challenge in neuroscience is testing whether neuronal connectivity changes over time due to specific causes, such as stimuli, events, or clinical interventions. Recent hardware innovations and falling data storage costs enable longer, more naturalistic neuronal recordings. The implicit opportunity for understanding the self-organised brain…

walterstiers

2026-03-12

Active Inference, Biology of Information, Information Technology, Neurobiology/psychology, Science

#ActiveInference, #DecisionIntelligence, #TheInformationLens, artificial-intelligence

Robust Decision-Making Via Free Energy Minimization

“Robust Decision-Making Via Free Energy Minimization” html, pdf, video, Nature Communications Despite their groundbreaking performance, state-of-the-art autonomous agents can misbehave when training and environmental conditions become inconsistent, with minor mismatches leading to undesirable behaviors or even catastrophic failures. Robustness towards these training/environment ambiguities is a core requirement for intelligent agents and its fulfillment is a…

walterstiers

2026-03-11

#Sensemaking, Active Inference, AI, Biology of Information, Decision Intelligence, Information Technology

#ActiveInference, #DecisionIntelligence, #ProblemSolvingMind, #TheInformationLens, artificial-intelligence

Exploration and Exploitation & Coping Strategy

“Transition Dynamics Between Exploration and Exploitation Predicts Individual Differences in Coping Strategy” Adaptive decision-making requires balancing exploitation of known rewarding options with exploration of uncertain alternatives, a dilemma also known as the exploration-exploitation tradeoff. While this framework has been widely studied in reinforcement learning research, its relevance to coping, defined as the cognitive and behavioral…

walterstiers

2026-03-11

Science, Biology of Information, Complexity, Decision Intelligence, #Wicked

Biology of Information, Life Ideas, Neurobiology/psychology, Science

Your brain on nature

“Your brain on nature: A scoping review of the neuroscience of nature exposure” The relationship between natural environments and human cognition has gathered increasing attention across disciplines, including neuroscience, environmental psychology, and public health. An expanding body of empirical evidence supports the notion that exposure to nature consistently promotes psychological and physiological well-being. However, our…

walterstiers

2026-03-10

#DecisionIntelligence, #Neuroscience, #ProblemSolvingMind, #TheInformationLens, health, mental-health

what felt like a communication problem is a thinking problem

“Betting blind on AI and the scientific mind” Our brains when we stop writing Writing is, for many, a way of thinking. Using chatbots to bypass the struggle to articulate thoughts might erode a scientist’s capacity for creativity and critical thinking, writes science-communication educator and neuroscientist Tim Requarth. The evidence either way is, so far,…

walterstiers

2026-02-28

#Sensemaking, AI, Complexity, Creative Thinking, Life Ideas, Science, Social-Technical

#DecisionIntelligence, #HumanAI, #TheInformationLens

Licht op het donker

Recent zijn een aantal boeken en publicaties verschenen en onder de aandacht gekomen, die licht gaven op het donkere dat gebeurd was. Enkele zijn samengevat in een eigen pagina:

walterstiers

Geweld herkennen

“Geweld herkennen in complexe scheiding. Inkijken bij het geïnstrumentaliseerde kind“ Manipulatie en controle bij echtscheidingen: “Dit zadelt kinderen op met levenslang trauma” Valerie Swennen, GVA – 19 januari 2026 “Geweld in scheidingen blijft vaak verborgen, maar de gevolgen zijn diep en blijvend.”Dit boek nodigt uit om met andere ogen te kijken naar conflict, communicatie en…

walterstiers

Morele revolutie

“Morele revolutie, Rutger Bregman“ De westerse wereld verkeert in een morele crisis. Niet de meest bekwame, maar de meest schaamteloze leiders komen aan de macht. In zijn BBC Reith Lectures — hier in ongecensureerde vorm — brengt Rutger Bregman zijn hele oeuvre samen in een pleidooi voor een morele revolutie. Bregman is geen vrije denker,…

walterstiers

D: The Dark Factor of Personality

“The Dark Factor of Personality” A unified theory of aversive personality Ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior is part of everyday life and instances of ruthless, selfish, unscrupulous, or even downright evil behavior can easily be found across history and cultures. Psychologists sometimes use the umbrella term “dark traits” to subsume personality traits that are…

walterstiers

The Science of Revenge

“The Science of Revenge, James Kimmel Jr.” In this definitive book on revenge, James Kimmel, Jr., JD, exposes the unseen neurobiological cause of violence—the compulsive desire for retribution—and offers a profound new understanding of human behavior and breakthrough framework for making our lives and communities safer. Yale violence researcher and psychiatry lecturer James Kimmel, Jr.,…

walterstiers

Poisonous People

“Leanne ten Brinke: Poisonous People” In Poisonous People, award-winning psychologist Dr. Leanneten Brinke offers a brilliant new perspective on darkpersonalities. Weaving together personal stories andpathbreaking research, she depicts a surprising reality: a small portion of the population causes most of the world’s suffering. People with psychopathic and related personalitytraits commit a disproportionate amount of crime,…

walterstiers

Active Inference, Biology of Information, Decision Intelligence, Neurobiology/psychology

Narcissism: Blunted Error-Related Brain Activity

“Narcissism Is Associated With Blunted Error-Related Brain Activity” Narcissism is associated with self-enhancement and social antagonism, yet its neural underpinnings, particularly in error processing, remain underexplored. Competing theoretical models, such as the mask model and the metacognitive model, offer conflicting hypotheses regarding how narcissism influences early neural responses to errors. We examine whether grandiose agentic…

walterstiers

2026-02-23

#DecisionIntelligence, #ProblemSolvingMind, #TheInformationLens

Inferring to cooperate: Bayesian inferential strategies

“Inferring to cooperate: Evolutionary games with Bayesian inferential strategies” Strategies for sustaining cooperation and preventing exploitation by selfish agents in repeated games have mostly been restricted to Markovian strategies where the response of an agent depends on the actions in the previous round. Such strategies are characterized by lack of learning.However, learning from accumulated evidence…

walterstiers

2026-02-16

#Sensemaking, #stakeholder economy, Biology of Information, Complexity, Decision Intelligence, Life Ideas, Science, Social-Technical

Vertalen – Transmigratie

DE KUNST VAN HET VERTALEN In de wondere wereld van de verbale transmigratie kunnen we drie kwaden onderscheiden. De eerste en minste van de drie bestaat uit aperte fouten, te wijten aan onwetendheid of foute kennis. Dit is slechts menselijke zwakte en derhalve pardonnabel. De volgende stap naar de Hel wordt gezet door de vertaler…

walterstiers

2026-01-29

#Sensemaking, #Wicked

Active Inference, Biology of Information, Decision Intelligence, Neurobiology/psychology

Active information sampling in health and disease

“Active information sampling in health and disease” Active information gathering is a fundamental cognitive process that enables organisms to navigate uncertainty and make adaptive decisions. This review has synthesised current knowledge on the behavioural, neural, and computational mechanisms underlying information sampling across health and disease. Several key themes have emerged from this analysis. Firstly, information…

walterstiers

2026-01-27

#DecisionIntelligence, #Neuroscience, #TheInformationLens, mental-health

Boredom and curiosity – information

“Boredom and curiosity: the hunger and the appetite for information“ Boredom and curiosity are common everyday states that drive individuals to seek information. Due to their functional relatedness, it is not trivial to distinguish whether an action, for instance in the context of a behavioral experiment, is driven by boredom or curiosity. Are the two…

walterstiers

2026-01-27

Biology of Information, Information Technology, Life Ideas, Neurobiology/psychology