AGENCY
The multiverse is eternal, static, and encompassing of every path.
Agency is carving a particular path through the multiverse.
The following terms and their respective definitions describe agency as an emergent property of a sufficiently complex information processing system which enables that information processing system to generate a virtual model its (apparently) encompassing physical environment and to interact with that environment such that the (apparently finite in terms of space and time) information processing agent is able to achieve that information processing agent’s goals.
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Note that, in the preformatted text boxes which describe PERCEPTION, DECISION, and EXECUTION as functions, the time increment unit of one (1) could potentially vary in temporal length in terms of milliseconds. What that one (1) represents is the discrete progression of the PERCEPTION-DECISION-EXECUTION cycle in terms of one of those three steps being completed.
AGENCY: an information processing agent’s ability to understand and to control reality.
Not all information processing agents have the same degree of agency. In general, the agency of an information processing agent can be measured in terms of respective decision making complexity which includes quantifiable factors such as data throughput capacity (e.g. bits per second), modeled decision making outcomes (e.g. number of options for a decision at a given point in an information processing agent’s environment modeling runtime), amount of accumulated non redundant memorized information which that information processing agent learned from past decision making experiences (e.g. bits of data stored), and decision making algorithm efficiency (e.g. Big O notation).
INFORMATION_PROCESSING_AGENT: a finite allocation of space, time, matter, and energy which are arranged in a relatively stable pattern and which renders perceptions, makes decisions using a process of elimination to reduce multiple behavior options down to exactly one option, and executes decision-making outcomes as a means to attain that information processing agent’s goals.
Not all objects are necessarily information processing agents (though it could be argued that every object in nature is an information processing agent given the fact that every object can be classified as a piece of information which changes its attributes in (apparent) response to other pieces of information changing their attributes).
An example of a relatively simple information processing agent is a virus. Unlike the relatively complex cells which a virus attaches to and injects its genetic material into in order to exploit that cell’s internal machinery to produce copies of that virus, a virus does not consume energy. A cell, by contrast, consumes energy and makes rudimentary decisions based on chemical inputs. For example, chemical receptors in a cell’s outer membrane switch specific gene transcription processes for building specific corresponding protein structures on or off in response to those receptors detecting specific molecular inputs such as hormones.
GOAL: a set of imaginary conditions which an information processing agent conceives of and which compel that information processing agent to implement specific actions which that information processing agent thinks will cause those imaginary conditions to become realized by that information processing agent as phenomena in that information processing agent’s future environment.
An example of rudimentary goal-oriented behavior is a C++ program which sets an int type variable named X to some random integer using a specific function and then, if the value of X is not equal to the goal state of 9, that random integer function will be called and the value of X will be set to the value returned by that function until the value of X is equal to the goal state of 9.
int X = generate_random_integer(); while (X != 9) X = generate_random_integer();
ENVIRONMENT: the finite set of phenomena which an information processing agent renders and perceives as being external to that information processing agent’s spatially finite and temporally finite body.
Note that it is possible for an information processing agent to perceive no boundary between its body and its environment. If that is the case, that information processing agent would perceive itself as having no agency (and agency is defined as an information processing agent appearing to itself to have some degree of control over which phenomena appear and which phenomena disappear inside of that information processing agent’s perceptual field).
PERCEPTION: an information processing agent rendering phenomena inside of that agent’s frame of reference as a result of that information processing agent (a) receiving “low level” sensory input data through that information processing agent’s sensory organs, (b) retrieving “middle level” sensory and conceptual throughput data which that information processing agent previously encoded and stored as memories inside of that information processing agent’s long-term information storage apparatus, and (c) generating “high level” conceptual throughput data which that information processing agent synthesizes from retrieved memories and from incoming sensory input.
/** * An information processing agent’s most * recent perception could be described as a * function whose input is that information * processing agent’s most recentexecution. */ perception := execution(time_i). // perception occurs time_i + 1
DECISION: an information processing agent (a) imagining a finite set of multiple options for how that information processing agent could behave and then (b) using an algorithmic process of elimination to iteratively reduce that set of options down to exactly one option (and that one remaining option is what the information processing agent selects as the planned action to implement in order to make progress towards achieving that information processing agent’s goal).
/** * An information processing agent’s most * recent decision could be described as a * function whose input is that information * processing agent’s most recent perception. */ decision := perception(time_i). // decision occurs at time_i + 1
EXECUTION: an information processing agent performing physical work by manipulating objects in that information processing agent’s environment (including that information processing agent’s own body) in order to implement a decision which that information processing agent made.
/** * An information processing agent’s most * recent execution could be described as a * function whose input is that information * processing agent’s most recent decision. */ execution := decision(time_i). // action occurs at time_i + 1
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