# Blankets, Heat, and Why Free Energy Has Not Illuminated the Workings of the Brain

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.01668 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.01668/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 5 Jan 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Hybrid Life: Integrating Biological, Artificial, and Cognitive Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00285/) (2022)
- [Stable Blanket with Hidden Variables and Cycles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.01856/) (2026)
- [Disentangled Representations for Causal Cognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00744/) (2024)
- [A Matter of Time: Towards a General Theory of Agency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23122/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

What can we hope to learn about brains from the free energy principle? In adopting the "primordial soup" physical model, Bruineberg et al. perpetuate the unsupported notion that the free energy principle has a meaningful physical--and neuronal--interpretation. We examine how minimization of free energy arises in physical contexts, and what this can and cannot tell us about brains.