Event Timeslots (1)

Wednesday
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
About a decade ago, Andy Clark published an influential paper in which he argued for an approach to understanding the mind that he called “predictive processing” (Clark, 2013). According to predictive processing, the brain uses a probabilistic model of its environment to make predictions about sensory signals and their hidden causes. Predictive processing does not constitute a novel approach to studying the mind, but seeks to unify many existing approaches under a single principle: prediction error minimization. In this seminar, we will read and discuss Clark’s most recent book, The Experience Machine. While Clark’s earlier (2016) book on predictive processing, Surfing Uncertainty, mostly addressed cognition and action, Clark (2023) also considers conscious experience. If possible, it is recommended that you purchase a copy of the book (Clark, 2023).