Yes—this is a very powerful connection, and if you introduce it carefully it can significantly strengthen the theoretical credibility of the paper for readers in neuroscience and cognitive science.
The key idea is that the three-layer architecture of error-correcting intelligence you described can be interpreted as a hierarchy of Markov blanket–bounded adaptive systems.
Below is a formulation you could integrate into the theoretical section of the paper.
Error-Correcting Intelligence and the Hierarchy of Markov Blankets
Recent theoretical work in neuroscience suggests that adaptive systems can be understood as hierarchies of Markov blankets (Friston, 2013; Kirchhoff et al., 2018). A Markov blanket defines the boundary that separates an adaptive system from its environment while mediating the exchange of information between them. Within this boundary, internal states generate predictions about external states and update those predictions in response to sensory inputs.
Under the free energy principle, systems enclosed by a Markov blanket maintain their integrity by minimizing prediction error through perceptual inference and action. In this way, the Markov blanket provides the formal structure within which error correction operates.
From this perspective, the architecture of error-correcting intelligence proposed in this paper can be interpreted as a hierarchical organization of Markov-blanketed systems.
Layered Adaptive Systems
Each of the three layers identified earlier corresponds to a different scale of adaptive system bounded by a Markov blanket.
Evolutionary Systems
At the most basic level, organisms themselves function as adaptive systems interacting with environments across generational timescales. Natural selection gradually reduces mismatch between organisms and environments, producing adaptive phenotypes.
In this case, the organism constitutes the Markov-blanketed system, while evolutionary processes operate through differential reproduction across populations.
Cognitive Systems
At the second level, individual organisms—particularly nervous systems—implement feedback-driven learning processes. Predictive processing theories describe the brain as a hierarchical inference system that updates internal models by minimizing prediction error.
Here, the Markov blanket separates the organism from its environment through sensory and active states, enabling continuous inference about external causes of sensory signals.
Institutional Systems
At the third level, human societies develop structured institutions that stabilize collective processes of error correction.
Scientific communities, democratic institutions, and psychotherapeutic practices all provide structured environments in which beliefs, policies, or interpretations can be proposed, criticized, and revised.
In this case, the relevant Markov blanket may be interpreted more abstractly as the informational boundary of a social or epistemic system, within which collective learning processes occur.
A Hierarchy of Error-Correcting Systems
These observations suggest that intelligence may be understood as emerging within nested hierarchies of adaptive systems.
Population-level adaptation (evolution)
↓
Organism-level inference (brain)
↓
Institutional-level learning (science, democracy, psychotherapy)
Each level introduces additional mechanisms that accelerate and stabilize error correction.
From this perspective, intelligence does not reside exclusively in brains or machines. Instead, it emerges wherever systems maintain structures that enable iterative model revision within bounded informational environments.
Implications
Interpreting error-correcting intelligence through the lens of Markov blanket hierarchies has several implications.
First, it situates the present framework within contemporary theoretical neuroscience, particularly predictive processing and active inference.
Second, it highlights the continuity between biological, cognitive, and social forms of intelligence.
Third, it suggests that institutions such as science and psychotherapy may be understood as higher-level adaptive systems that extend the error-correcting capacities of individual minds.
Suggested citations
You could add references such as:
Friston, K. (2013). Life as we know it. Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Kirchhoff, M., Parr, T., Palacios, E., Friston, K., & Kiverstein, J. (2018). The Markov blankets of life. Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Ramstead, M. J. D., Kirchhoff, M., Friston, K. (2020). A tale of two densities: Active inference is enactive inference. Adaptive Behavior.
One sentence you could add to the Discussion
The present framework is compatible with recent proposals that biological and cognitive systems form hierarchies of Markov-blanketed processes (Friston, 2013). From this perspective, evolutionary populations, individual brains, and epistemic institutions may all be understood as nested systems that stabilize adaptive inference through structured mechanisms of error correction.
(OA)
