About
About
About
We aim to authoritatively inform and engage our members in the principled understanding and formation of The Sentient Age.
We aim to authoritatively inform and engage our members in the principled understanding and formation of The Sentient Age.
We aim to authoritatively inform and engage our members in the principled understanding and formation of The Sentient Age.
About
We aim to authoritatively inform and engage our members in the principled understanding and formation of The Sentient Age.
“Nature never breaks her own laws”
- Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature never breaks her own laws”
- Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature never breaks her own laws”
- Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature never breaks her own laws”
- Leonardo da Vinci
Our Mission
If there is to be informed public dialogue on the technologies of “intelligences”, there needs to be a principled scientific basis for communicating, modeling, and applying “intelligences” independent of their monetization, promotion, and exploitation. Such a pursuit should be undertaken as a rigorous scientific inquiry for the creation of “public good” much like Wikipedia, the one ubiquitous and transformative innovation on the Web designed for the common good.
In a global information ecosystem of increasing noise and skepticism, the sole beacon of trusted and verifiable truth claims is the Scientific Method. As John von Neuman and Albert Einstein argued on numerous occasions, scientific innovation thrives in an open environment where proprietary interests cannot stifle shared learning. A principled and evidence-based computational approach to understanding “intelligences” and their implications is needed not only to advance our collective understanding of intelligences but to ensure their independent and credibly informed oversight.
A First Principles First approach begins with the goal of understanding "intelligences", if not "conscious agents" from the fundamentals of physics, beginning with the Hamiltonian principle of Least Action, the Free Energy Principle, proceeding through Quantum Information Theory, and then through the Second Law of Quantum Complexity, and potentially, the mathematics of Markov kernels and Lebesgue logic. Some of these principles are not yet "settled science" and hence, without a widely accepted consensus. The intent of this effort is to determine whether and where there might be a rough consensus about the underlying physics of intelligence, if not consciousness, and then identifying experiments and applications to test such hypotheses.
Underlying this First Principles First approach is a collective effort to test the claim—the very significant claim—that such First Principles can be applied across different scales and domains. The final application of the First Principles approach will be to societal and cognitive constructs such as "collective beliefs" or "ideologies" as manifested in new forms of enterprises, finance, governance, economies, and institutions.
Thought Leaders
Dr. John H. Clippinger
Dr. John H. Clippinger
Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer (CVO), First Principles First
Researcher, and entrepreneur in self-organizing agents, AI and computational linguistics, policy advocate for privacy, self-sovereign identity, and advocate for new generation of societal and ecological polities and institutions grounded in scientific first principles.
David Lovejoy
David Lovejoy
Co-Founder and Managing Director, First Principles First
Seasoned entrepreneur and investor with an MBA from the University of British Columbia. Founder and CEO of Horizon Search; advisor specializing in scaling ventures using artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to build resilient organizations.
Dr. Daniel Friedman
Dr. Daniel Friedman
President and Co-Founder of the Active Inference Institute
Studied the evolution of collective behavior in ants at Stanford University, contributing to key research on gene expression evolution in ants and bees. Diverse interests include fractals, burritos, metaphors, and drawing.
Dr. Don Hoffman
Dr. Don Hoffman
Cognitive Psychologist and Author
Studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology through mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. Research focuses on how perception relates to objective reality and the fundamental nature of conscious experience across disciplines.
Dr. Tom Kehler
Dr. Tom Kehler
Scientist and Entrepreneur
Chief Scientist, Co-Founder, and Board Member at CrowdSmart, driving innovation in AI and collective intelligence. With over 30 years as an entrepreneur and CEO, pioneered transformative technologies, leading IntelliCorp, Connect, and Informative to success.
Prof. Anil Seth
Prof. Anil Seth
Neuroscientist, Author, Speaker
Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and a proponent of materialist explanations of consciousness, he is currently among the most cited scholars globally on neuroscience and cognitive science topics.
Dr. Chris Fields
Dr. Chris Fields
Independent Scientist
Specializes in applying classical and quantum information-theoretic principles to developmental biology and cognitive neuroscience. This interdisciplinary research explores how information processing shapes biological development and neural functions across scales.
Prof. Michael Levin
Prof. Michael Levin
Developmental and Synthetic Biologist
Directs the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University and Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. As Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor, leads pioneering work on bioelectricity in developmental biology and regeneration.
Dr. David Silbersweig
Dr. David Silbersweig
Psychiatrist, MD. and Neuroscientist
Chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Co-Directs the Institute for the Neurosciences at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Serves as Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, focusing on neuropsychiatric research and integration.
Prof. Karl Friston
Prof. Karl Friston
Neuroscientist and Theoretician
Authority on brain imaging and theoretical neuroscience, especially the use of physics-inspired statistical methods to model neuroimaging data and other random dynamical systems. Father of Active Inferencing and Free Energy Principle.
Thought Leaders
Researcher, and entrepreneur in self-organizing agents, AI and computational linguistics, policy advocate for privacy, self-sovereign identity, and advocate for new generation of societal and ecological polities and institutions grounded in scientific first principles.
Researcher, and entrepreneur in self-organizing agents, AI and computational linguistics, policy advocate for privacy, self-sovereign identity, and advocate for new generation of societal and ecological polities and institutions grounded in scientific first principles.
Seasoned entrepreneur and investor with an MBA from the University of British Columbia. Founder and CEO of Horizon Search; advisor specializing in scaling ventures using artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to build resilient organizations.
Seasoned entrepreneur and investor with an MBA from the University of British Columbia. Founder and CEO of Horizon Search; advisor specializing in scaling ventures using artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to build resilient organizations.
Studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology through mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. Research focuses on how perception relates to objective reality and the fundamental nature of conscious experience across disciplines.
Studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology through mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. Research focuses on how perception relates to objective reality and the fundamental nature of conscious experience across disciplines.
Specializes in applying classical and quantum information-theoretic principles to developmental biology and cognitive neuroscience. This interdisciplinary research explores how information processing shapes biological development and neural functions across scales.
Specializes in applying classical and quantum information-theoretic principles to developmental biology and cognitive neuroscience. This interdisciplinary research explores how information processing shapes biological development and neural functions across scales.
Chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Co-Directs the Institute for the Neurosciences at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Serves as Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, focusing on neuropsychiatric research and integration.
Chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Co-Directs the Institute for the Neurosciences at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Serves as Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, focusing on neuropsychiatric research and integration.
“Underlying this First Principles First approach is a collective effort to test the claim—the very significant claim—that such First Principles can be applied across different scales and domains.”
“Underlying this First Principles First approach is a collective effort to test the claim—the very significant claim—that such First Principles can be applied across different scales and domains.”
“Underlying this First Principles First approach is a collective effort to test the claim—the very significant claim—that such First Principles can be applied across different scales and domains.”
John H. Clippinger
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Join the sentient revolution
Contribute your insights to shape the future of AI and human cognition
First Principles First is at the forefront of developing AI agents that act as proxies for humans, capable of managing tasks autonomously and securely in diverse environments.
Join the sentient revolution
Contribute your insights to shape the future of AI and human cognition
First Principles First is at the forefront of developing AI agents that act as proxies for humans, capable of managing tasks autonomously and securely in diverse environments.
Join the sentient revolution
Contribute your insights to shape the future of AI and human cognition
First Principles First is at the forefront of developing AI agents that act as proxies for humans, capable of managing tasks autonomously and securely in diverse environments.
Nullius in Verba
Take No One's Word for It
Join the sentient revolution
Contribute your insights to shape the future of AI and human cognition
First Principles First is at the forefront of developing AI agents that act as proxies for humans, capable of managing tasks autonomously and securely in diverse environments.
