Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind

This book brings together work on embodiment, action, and the predictive mind. At the core of the treatment is the vision of human minds as prediction machines—devices that constantly try to stay one step ahead of the breaking waves of sensory stimulation, by actively predicting the incoming flow. In every situation we encounter, that complex prediction machinery is already buzzing, proactively trying to anticipate the sensory barrage. Surfing Uncertainty shows, in detail and with numerous examples, how this strange but potent strategy of self-anticipation ushers perception, understanding, and imagination simultaneously onto the cognitive stage. Action itself suddenly appears in a new and revealing light. For…