Prediction Error Minimization

The concept stems from neuroscientist Karl Friston's free energy principle, which emerged in the early 2000s as a unified theory of brain function. Building on Hermann von Helmholtz's 1860s concept of unconscious inference, Friston proposed that the brain continuously generates predictions about sensory input and minimizes prediction errors. This predictive coding framework represents the brain as a Bayesian inference engine that updates its model of the world by reducing variational free energy.