Empowerment: Theme and Variations

Speaker: Daniel Polani (University of Hertfordshire)

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Abstract: 

Shannon information, formerly essentially the domain of communication engineers or, at best, physicists, has, in the last two decades, turned into an indispensable tool to study complex systems, and especially decision-making. Information has been identified as the universal currency which governs the dynamics of such systems.

As such, it has become increasingly important to track various forms of information flow through such systems,especially agents, whether natural or artificial. Here we consider one particular type of such information flow, empowerment, which is now finding strongly increasing use as a principled form of intrinsic motivation. The present talk will discuss empowerment in more detail and also consider a number of lesser-known ramifications and aspects of this concept.