Daniel Polani - Information and its Flow: From Dynamics to Agency and Back

In the last few years, various forms of information flow were found to be useful quantities for the characterization of the decision-making of agents, whether natural or artificial. We here especially consider one particular type of information flow, empowerment, which can be used as intrinsic motivation that is derived from the dynamical properties of the external perception-action loop. The present talk will discuss empowerment in the context of its evolutionary motivation, questions of agency as well as some insightful new links to Dynamical Systems theory.