Free Energy is Nothing(ness)

I draw a parallel in this essay between Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism and the Free Energy Principle (FEP), a basic physical property of life on earth. I show how the three elements of Sartre’s theory fit elegantly with three elements of a FEP view of the world. I discuss how this connection gives fresh insights into both Sartre and the free energy principle. This essay is not claiming an exhaustive mapping from Sartre’s vast system to free energy concepts. Instead, it poses such a mapping as a possibility, and investigates the connecting threads along the most important dimensions. While this necessarily leaves much out, it is meant as a starting point.