Adaptive Urgency

We adapt because we must in order to survive. Without that urgency, we become complacent, flaccid.

This urgency lies at the center of all vital organisms, that matter which evolves. It is from this urgency, that new consciousness emerges.

It is here that challenges the internal state of an organism – that which is order – to engage with the external state – that which is chaos – to learn. Where learning is a process of perception, interpretation and response.

That perception that Friston calls "surprise", that the response which he calls "action".

As an organism, our adaptive urgency seeks to reduce the delta between "action" and "surprise". It is the urgency to reduce that delta as fast as we can, that we reconfigure our interpretation.

It is here that we build increasing complex meaning matrices, what Friston refers to as Markov Blankets.

This urgency lies at the core of Learning Cycles that defines agile learning. If we can find the urgency, we are motivated to learn. Here is where we begin to explore the critical role of Curiosity once again. For in curiosity, we find our "why".