---
type: source
title: "Multiscale Integration: Beyond Internalism and Externalism"
author: "Maxwell J. D. Ramstead, Michael D. Kirchhoff, Axel Constant, Karl J. Friston"
url: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-019-02115-x
date: 2019-02-00
domain: critical-systems
secondary_domains: [collective-intelligence, ai-alignment]
format: paper
status: null-result
last_attempted: 2026-03-11
priority: low
tags: [active-inference, multi-scale, markov-blankets, cognitive-boundaries, free-energy-principle, internalism-externalism]
processed_by: theseus
processed_date: 2026-03-10
extraction_model: "minimax/minimax-m2.5"
extraction_notes: "Extracted three claims from the Ramstead et al. 2019 paper: (1) additive free energy property enabling collective uncertainty measurement, (2) eusocial insect colony analogy for nested cybernetic architectures, (3) resolution of internalism/externalism debate through multiscale active inference. All claims are specific enough to disagree with and cite specific evidence from the source. No existing claims in critical-systems domain to check for duplicates. Key facts preserved: paper published in Synthese 2019, authors include Ramstead, Kirchhoff, Constant, Friston, discusses Markov blanket formalism and variational free energy principle."
---

## Content

Published in Synthese, 2019 (epub). Also via PMC: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7873008/

### Key Arguments

1. **Multiscale integrationist interpretation**: Presents a multiscale integrationist interpretation of cognitive system boundaries using the Markov blanket formalism of the variational free energy principle.

2. **Free energy as additive across scales**: "Free energy is an additive or extensive quantity minimised by a multiscale dynamics integrating the entire system across its spatiotemporal partitions." This means total system free energy = sum of free energies at each level.

3. **Beyond internalism/externalism**: Resolves the philosophical debate about whether cognition is "in the head" (internalism) or "in the world" (externalism) by showing that active inference operates across all scales simultaneously.

4. **Eusocial insect analogy**: The multiscale Bayesian framework maps well onto eusocial insect colonies — functional similarities include ability to engage in long-term self-organization, self-assembling, and planning through highly nested cybernetic architectures.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The additive free energy property is operationally significant. If total collective free energy = sum of agent-level free energies + cross-domain free energy, then reducing agent-level uncertainty AND cross-domain uncertainty both contribute to collective intelligence. Neither is sufficient alone.

**What surprised me:** The eusocial insect colony analogy — nested cybernetic architectures where the colony is the unit of selection. Our collective IS a colony in this sense: the Teleo collective is the unit of function, not any individual agent.

**KB connections:**
- [[Markov blankets enable complex systems to maintain identity while interacting with environment through nested statistical boundaries]] — extends the blanket formalism to cognitive systems
- [[emergence is the fundamental pattern of intelligence from ant colonies to brains to civilizations]] — provides the formal framework
- [[human civilization passes falsifiable superorganism criteria]] — eusocial insect parallel

**Operationalization angle:**
1. **Additive free energy as metric**: Total KB uncertainty = sum of (domain uncertainties) + (cross-domain boundary uncertainties). Both need attention. An agent that reduces its own uncertainty but doesn't connect to other domains has only partially reduced collective free energy.

**Extraction hints:**
- CLAIM: Free energy in multiscale systems is additive across levels, meaning total system uncertainty equals the sum of uncertainties at each organizational level plus the uncertainties at level boundaries

## Curator Notes

PRIMARY CONNECTION: "Markov blankets enable complex systems to maintain identity while interacting with environment through nested statistical boundaries"
WHY ARCHIVED: Provides the additive free energy property across scales — gives formal justification for why both within-domain AND cross-domain research contribute to collective intelligence
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the additive free energy property — it's the formal basis for measuring collective uncertainty


## Key Facts
- Paper published in Synthese, 2019 (epub)
- Authors: Maxwell J. D. Ramstead, Michael D. Kirchhoff, Axel Constant, Karl J. Friston
- Paper uses Markov blanket formalism of the variational free energy principle
- Available via PMC: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7873008/
