<div dir="ltr"><div>AUTONOMOUS AGENCY: The definition I propose for autonomous agency It is open to challenge. Of course, there are many ways that we use the term 'agent' in more general and metaphoric ways. I am, however, interested in the more fundamental conception that these derived uses stem from. I do not claim that this definition is original, but rather that it is what we implicitly understand by the concept. So if this is not your understanding I am open to suggestions for modification. </div><div><br></div><div>I should add that it has been a recent goal of my work to describe an empirically testable simplest model system that satisfies this definition. Those of you who are familiar with my work will recognize that this is what I call an autogenic or teleodynamic system. In this context, however, it is only the adequacy of the definition that I am interested in exploring. As in many of the remarks of others on this topic it is characterized by strange-loop recursivity, self-reference, and physicality. And it may be worth while describing how this concept is defined by e.g. Hofstadter, von Foerster, Luhmann, Moreno, Kauffman, Barad, and others, to be sure that we have covered the critical features and haven't snuck in any "demons". In my definition, I have attempted to avoid any cryptic appeal to observers or unexamined teleological properties, because my purpose is instead to provide a constructive definition of what these properties entail and why they are essential to a full conception of information.</div><div><br></div>CENTRALITY OF NORMATIVE PROPERTIES: A critical factor when discussing agency is that it is typically defined with respect to "satisfaction conditions" or "functions" or "goals" or other NORMATIVE properties. Normative properties are all implicitly teleological. They are irrelevant to chemistry and physics. The concept of an "artificial agent" may not require intrinsic teleology (e.g. consider thermostats or guidance systems - often described as teleonomic systems) but the agentive properties of such artifacts are then implicitly parasitic on imposed teleology provided by some extrinsic agency. This is of course implicit also in the concepts of 'signal' and 'noise' which are central to most information concepts. These are not intrinsic properties of information, but are extrinsically imposed distinctions (e.g. noise as signal to the repair person). So I consider the analysis of agency and its implicit normativity to be a fundamental issue to be resolved in our analysis of information. Though we can still bracket any consideration of agency from many analyses my simply assuming it (e.g. assumed users, interpreters, organisms and their functions, etc.), but this explicitly leaves a critical defining criterion outside the analysis. In these cases, we should just be clear that in doing so we have imported unexplained boundary conditions into the analysis by fiat. Depending on the goal of the analysis (also a teleological factor) this may be unimportant. But the nature and origin of agency and normativity remain foundational questions for any full theory of information. </div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 12:47 PM, Stanley N Salthe <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ssalthe@binghamton.edu" target="_blank">ssalthe@binghamton.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Here is an interesting recent treatment of autonomy.<div><br></div><div>
<p class="m_2661958331623774865gmail-p1">Alvaro Moreno and Matteo Mossio: Biological Autonomy: A Philosophical</p>
<p class="m_2661958331623774865gmail-p1">and Theoretical Enquiry (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences 12);</p>
<p class="m_2661958331623774865gmail-p1">Springer, Dordrecht, 2015, xxxiv + 221 pp., $129 hbk, ISBN 978-94-017-9836-5</p><p class="m_2661958331623774865gmail-p1"><br></p><p class="m_2661958331623774865gmail-p1">STAN</p></div></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 11:44 AM, Terrence W. DEACON <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:deacon@berkeley.edu" target="_blank">deacon@berkeley.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica">AN AUTONOMOUS AGENT IS A DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ORGANIZED TO BE CAPABLE OF INITIATING PHYSICAL WORK TO FURTHER PRESERVE THIS SAME CAPACITY IN THE CONTEXT OF INCESSANT EXTRINSIC AND/OR INTRINSIC TENDENCIES FOR THIS SYSTEM CAPACITY TO DEGRADE. </p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;min-height:14px"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica">THIS ENTAILS A CAPACITY TO ORGANIZE WORK THAT IS SPECIFICALLY CONTRAGRADE TO THE FORM OF THIS DEGRADATIONAL INFLUENCE, AND THUS ENTAILS A CAPACITY TO BE INFORMED BY THE EFFECTS OF THAT INFLUENCE WITH RESPECT TO THE AGENT’S CRITICAL ORGANIZATIONAL CONSTRAINTS.</p></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="m_2661958331623774865h5">On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 6:00 PM, Koichiro Matsuno <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:CXQ02365@nifty.com" target="_blank">CXQ02365@nifty.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="m_2661958331623774865h5"><div lang="JA" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="m_2661958331623774865m_3923441942801325423m_5395678425082897051WordSection1"><span><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">On 19 Oct 2017 at 6:42 AM, Alex Hankey wrote:<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">the actual subject has to be non-reducible and fundamental to our universe.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> This view is also supported by Conway-Kochen’s free will theorem (2006). If (a big IF, surely) we admit that our fellows can freely exercise their free will, it must be impossible to imagine that the atoms and molecules lack their share of the similar capacity. For our bodies eventually consist of those atoms and molecules. <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> Moreover, the exercise of free will on the part of the constituent atoms and molecules could come to implement the centripetality of Bob Ulanowicz at long last under the guise of chemical affinity unless the case would have to forcibly be dismissed.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> This has been my second post this week.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> Koichiro Matsuno<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Fis [mailto:<a href="mailto:fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">fis-bounces@listas.uni<wbr>zar.es</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Alex Hankey<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 19, 2017 6:42 AM<br><b>To:</b> Arthur Wist <<a href="mailto:arthur.wist@gmail.com" target="_blank">arthur.wist@gmail.com</a>>; FIS Webinar <<a href="mailto:Fis@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">Fis@listas.unizar.es</a>><span><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Fis] What is “Agent”?<u></u><u></u></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">David Chalmers's analysis made it clear that if agents exist, then they are as fundamental to the universe as electrons or gravitational mass. <u></u><u></u></span></p><span><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Certain kinds of physiological structure support 'agents' - those emphasized by complexity biology. But the actual subject has to be non-reducible and fundamental to our universe. <u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Alex <u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div></span></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><span>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
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<br></span></blockquote></div><span class="m_2661958331623774865HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="m_2661958331623774865m_3923441942801325423gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Professor Terrence W. Deacon<br>University of California, Berkeley</div>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Professor Terrence W. Deacon<br>University of California, Berkeley</div>
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