Article

Self-Organized Complexity and Coherent Infomax from the Viewpoint of Jaynes's Probability Theory

Details

Citation

Phillips W (2012) Self-Organized Complexity and Coherent Infomax from the Viewpoint of Jaynes's Probability Theory. Information, 3 (1), pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010001

Abstract
This paper discusses concepts of self-organized complexity and the theory of Coherent Infomax in the light of Jaynes’s probability theory. Coherent Infomax, shows, in principle, how adaptively self-organized complexity can be preserved and improved by using probabilistic inference that is context-sensitive. It argues that neural systems do this by combining local reliability with flexible, holistic, context-sensitivity. Jaynes argued that the logic of probabilistic inference shows it to be based upon Bayesian and Maximum Entropy methods or special cases of them. He presented his probability theory as the logic of science; here it is considered as the logic of life. It is concluded that the theory of Coherent Infomax specifies a general objective for probabilistic inference, and that contextual interactions in neural systems perform functions required of the scientist within Jaynes’s theory.

Keywords
self-organization; complexity; Coherent Infomax; Jaynes; probability theory; probabilistic inference; neural computation; information; context-sensitivity; coordination

Journal
Information: Volume 3, Issue 1

StatusPublished
Publication date31/01/2012
Date accepted by journal29/12/2011
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/20494
PublisherMDPI

People (1)

Professor Bill Phillips

Professor Bill Phillips

Emeritus Professor, Psychology