Thanks for writing this post! I am glad someone doing alignment is paying attention to Markov blankets.
Not everything that is statistically couched from the outside world by a boundary is sensibly described as an agent. For instance, a rock is a self-organised entity with reasonably clear boundaries. Moreover, these boundaries are generally more robust than those of living beings, lasting considerably longer.
I don’t think a rock’s boundary is particularly robust. If I smash a rock with a hammer, bye-bye rock-blanket. If I smash you with a hammer, you will be injured but still exist. (You are in general better at keeping your internal states within a certain set—i.e. maintaining your non-equilibrium steady states—such that your blanket persists through time, and you do this by acting on the world.)
If you are interested in distinguishing people from rocks, I think https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.12761 is worth a look. See in particular figure 2 on page 14.
I think this undersells the interest of seeing agency as a fractal-like phenomenon that doesn't fit a clear, discrete separation between agents and their environments.
And, not exactly what you are talking about, but somewhat related: I have recently been thinking about why Markov blankets change. Feel free to DM if you want to talk.
Thanks for writing this post! I am glad someone doing alignment is paying attention to Markov blankets.
I don’t think a rock’s boundary is particularly robust. If I smash a rock with a hammer, bye-bye rock-blanket. If I smash you with a hammer, you will be injured but still exist. (You are in general better at keeping your internal states within a certain set—i.e. maintaining your non-equilibrium steady states—such that your blanket persists through time, and you do this by acting on the world.)
If you are interested in distinguishing people from rocks, I think https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.12761 is worth a look. See in particular figure 2 on page 14.
https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/39856902/How_to_Knit_Your_Own_Markov_Blanket.pdf and https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.21217 may be of interest.
And, not exactly what you are talking about, but somewhat related: I have recently been thinking about why Markov blankets change. Feel free to DM if you want to talk.