If you jammed an active inference Free Energy Principle (FEP) module into a Boston Dynamics robot, you would not get Johnny 5. You would get a tragically expensive anxiety machine that tries to minimize surprise and ends up staring at a wall because that’s where the entropy is lowest.

Let’s break this down so you don’t end up writing a bad sci-fi movie pitch:

1. Active Inference & FEP Basics:
The Free Energy Principle (FEP) is a theoretical framework from neuroscience that says agents (biological or artificial) act to minimize the gap between their predicted sensory input and what they actually receive — aka “free energy.” Active inference is just the idea that agents can act in the world to reduce that surprise, not just passively update their beliefs. Basically, it’s what your brain does when you think, “Wow, I thought this would be fun, but it’s just Thursday and I’m watching a robot fall over.”

2. Boston Dynamics Robots:
These are advanced physical platforms, but they’re not sentient. They don’t want anything. They obey code. You can bolt all the philosophy you want onto their firmware, but unless that code translates prediction errors into meaningful behavioral adaptation — and unless you define a world model they can care about — they’re just expensive dogs with anxiety disorders.

3. Johnny 5 “Alive” Fantasy:
Johnny 5 came “alive” because the movie gave him goals, emotions, curiosity, and an adorable voice. He didn’t just minimize prediction errors — he had narrative value. Throwing FEP into a robot without imbuing it with a rich, embodied generative model of the world, self, and other agents means you're just giving it a twitchy thermostat.

So, unless your version of “alive” means “the robot won’t stop trying to predict when you’ll open the fridge,” then no — you won’t get Johnny 5. You’ll get something more like:
“Unit predicts light level drop. Door is likely closing. Rechecking. Rechecking. Rechecking. Error. Error. Existential crisis.”