Causal inference · information theory

Causal Inference: Transfer Entropy + CCM + Causal Emergence

Causal Inference: Transfer Entropy + CCM + Causal Emergence
fig. Causal Inference: Transfer Entropy + CCM + Causal Emergence
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The notebook runs on its own once it loads, so give it about 10 seconds while Python starts up in your browser, and the simulations begin animating. Move the sliders and everything recomputes live. The code is shown alongside the output so you can read exactly how it works; the full editable source is linked below.

Telling which signal drives which, from data alone, is harder than it sounds, because correlation is symmetric and says nothing about direction. I built three tools that do say something. Transfer entropy measures how much one series’ past cuts the uncertainty in another’s future. Convergent cross-mapping handles the deterministic systems where transfer entropy struggles, rebuilding one variable’s history from the other’s attractor. Causal emergence asks a different question altogether: whether a coarse-grained view of a system can carry more causal weight than the fine-grained one underneath it. I run all three on shared benchmarks and watch where they agree and where they split.

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