codexPaper 2: The Cortical Markov Blanket
Executive Overview
This paper establishes a mathematically rigorous synthesis between Friston's Free Energy Principle and Tononi's Integrated Information Theory. It formulates a minimal viable agent bounded by a full Markov Blanket grounded in the canonical cortical microcircuit. By leveraging the steady-state Lyapunov equation, it demonstrates the conditional independence of the blanket. Furthermore, it mathematically guarantees strictly positive intrinsic integrated information (\Phi > 0) for biological cortical columns by applying the Intrinsic Difference metric over the continuous stationary density.