Research

My academic focus is on complex adaptive systems and cognition both "in silico" (on computers) and "in vivo" (in biological organisms). While my primary research interests relate to broad-level principles, I am also interested in how these principles play out in depth within more detailed domains.  

Specific research interests:

• Challenging intuitive assumptions about animacy and agency within Artificial Life theory.
  
  
• Applying the frameworks of Shannon information theory and algorithmic information theory to the conceptual treatment of complex adaptive systems.
  
  
• Karl Friston's "Free Energy Principle": a theory of adaptive systems in general, and in particular the brain, which seeks to provide a united explanation of inference and goal-directed action using an information-theoretic quantity.
  
  
• Understanding the consequences of "the flip side of embodiment" for rationality: the intrinsic involvement of reasoners in the systems they are reasoning about.