Intelligence as a Response to Entropy

Recent advances in fields ranging from cosmology to computer science have hinted at a possible deep connection between intelligence and entropy maximization. In cosmology, the causal entropic principle for anthropic selection has used the maximization of entropy production in causally connected space-time regions as a thermodynamic proxy for intelligent observer concentrations in the prediction of cosmological parameters [1]. In geoscience, entropy production maximization has been proposed as a unifying principle for nonequilibrium processes underlying planetary development and the emergence of life [2–4]. In computer science, maximum entropy methods have been used for inference in situations with dynamically revealed information [5], and strategy algorithms have even started to beat human opponents for the first time at historically challenging high look-ahead depth and branching factor games like Go by maximizing accessible future game states [6]. However, despite these insights, no formal physical relationship between intelligence and entropy maximization has yet been established. In this Letter, we explicitly propose a first step toward such a relationship in the form of a causal generalization of entropic forces that we show can spontaneously induce remarkably sophisticated behaviors associated with the human ‘‘cognitive niche,’’ including tool use and social cooperation, in simple physical systems. Our results suggest a potentially general thermodynamic model of adaptive behavior as a nonequilibrium process in open systems.

Researchers create an AI that seeks to maximize its potential future histories and therefore tackles goals like playing the stockmarket and balancing balls on sticks because to let the money run out or the ball drop would reduce its potential future histories. Intelligence seeks to maximize entropy.