| Literature DB >> 35153668 |
Abstract
Decision-making is described as a natural process, one among others, consuming free energy in the least time. The thermodynamic tenet explains why data associated with decisions display the same patterns as any other data: skewed distributions, sigmoidal cumulative curves, oscillations, and even chaos. Moreover, it is shown that decision-making is intrinsically an intractable process because everything depends on everything else. However, no decision is arbitrary but bounded by free energy, such as resources and propellants, and restricted by mechanisms like molecular, neural, and social networks. The least-time maximation of entropy, equivalent to the minimization of free energy, parallels the optimization of subjective expected utility. As the system attains a state of balance, all driving forces vanish. Then there is no need or use to make further decisions. In general, the thermodynamic theory regards those decisions well-motivated that take into account forces, i.e., causes comprehensively in projecting motions, i.e., consequences.Entities:
Keywords: force; free energy; photon; quantum; statistical physics; thermodynamics; utility
Year: 2022 PMID: 35153668 PMCID: PMC8832875 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.806160
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Front Neurosci ISSN: 1662-453X Impact factor: 4.677
FIGURE 1Assuming everything comprises the same fundamental elements, the quanta, a decision-making system, as any system, can be pictured in terms of an energy level diagram. The entities in numbers N, with the same energy G, are on the same level. The bow arrows portray their mutual exchange, which causes no change in the average energy of the system, k. The horizontal arrows correspond to transformations moving the entities from one level to another. For example, in a chemical reaction, starting materials, N, transform into products, N. The vertical wave arrows denote the quanta of light that couple to the transformations by entering the system from the environment or vice versa. Since the quanta carry energy, ΔQ, all events, as flows of quanta, move the system and its surroundings toward thermodynamic balance. When the surroundings are higher in energy than the system, the system evolves toward higher average energy and the surrounding systems toward lower average energy, and vice versa. The cumulative probability distribution curve (dotted line) is a sigmoid. When its logarithm, entropy, S, is plotted as a function of (chemical) potential energy, μ, it mainly follows a power law, i.e., a straight line on the logarithm-logarithm scale (inset).