# Consensus between Epistemic Agents is Difficult

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.04642 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04642/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Jan 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Coordination Requires Simplification: Thermodynamic Bounds on Multi-Objective Compromise in Natural and Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23144/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce an epistemic information measure between two data streams, that we term influence. Closely related to transfer entropy, the measure must be estimated by epistemic agents with finite memory resources via sampling accessible data streams. We show that even under ideal conditions, epistemic agents using slightly different sampling strategies might not achieve consensus in their conclusions about which data stream is influencing which. As an illustration, we examine a real world data stream where different sampling strategies result in contradictory conclusions, explaining why some politically charged topics might exist due to purely epistemic reasons irrespective of the actual ontology of the world.