Predictive Processing

Predictive processing is a theory of how our brain makes sense of the world.

It says that "the brain is constantly generating and updating a mental model of the environment. The model is used to generate predictions of sensory input that are compared to actual sensory input. This comparison results in prediction errors that are then used to update and revise the mental model."

In other words, we have a top-down model of the world that is predicting bottom-up sensory input.

We're constantly putting on lenses and then shove sensory data into those models.

For example, can you tell what these images are?

If I give you a model/lens that it's a dalmation and a cow, now can you?

We can also "insert" model-based meaning with words:

Or the model can force us to ignore sensory data:

Did you see both instances of "the"?

For more, see this excellent Book Review of Surfing Uncertainty from SSC.

Key quote:

We alter our predictions to fit the world, and alter the world to fit our predictions.