flâneur

[2101.10483] Cyber Kittens, or Some First Steps Towards Categorical Cybernetics

arxiv.org · 8,094 words · saved by 1 readers

We define a categorical notion of cybernetic system as a dynamical realisation of a generalized open game, along with a coherence condition. We show that this notion captures a wide class of cybernetic systems in computational neuroscience and statistical machine learning, exposes their compositional structure, and gives an abstract justification for the bidirectional structure empirically observed in cortical circuits. Our construction is built on the observation that Bayesian updates compose optically, a fact which we prove along the way, via a fibred category of state-dependent stochastic channels.

Cyber Kittens, or Some First Steps Towards Categorical Cybernetics Toby St. Clere Smithe Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford arxiv@tsmithe.net We define a categorical notion of cybernetic system as a dynamical realisation of a generalized open game, along with a coherence condition. We show that this notion captures a wide class of cybernetic systems in…

related reading