Note that Geoffrey Hinton's first Restricted Boltzmann Machines were designed to minimize free energy. The first Restricted Boltzmann Machine, however, was Paul

Note that Geoffrey Hinton's first Restricted Boltzmann Machines were designed to minimize free energy. The first Restricted Boltzmann Machine, however, was Paul Smolensky's Harmonium. It maximized a metric called harmony, which was essentially the inverse of free energy. When Hinton and Smolensky collaborated with Rummelhart on a publication, they settled on calling it "goodness of fit". My point is that saying that the brain is maximizing harmony is quite reasonable -- and much easier to understand. Rumelhart, D. E., Smolensky, P., McClelland, J. L., & GE, H. (1986). Schemata and Sequential Thought in PDP Model. PDP, Exploration in the Microstructure of Cognition, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, Vol. IIº.