What does it mean to be an Agent?

Abstract

Questions have arisen as to the agent status of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This article endeavors to build a general framework for reframing what “agent” and “agency” means to a more inclusive approach. This article further demonstrates the issues in current approaches (like the mental or intentional approaches) serving to justify the proposed change. It begins with the theoretical underpinnings of ‘explanations’ and how these functions to build theories. Thereafter a model of agency based on the notion of “purposive action” is built. Purposive action is understood to be agents who utilize features in their environments as affordances which are conducive towards their goals. Furthermore, this article builds a notion of agency and autonomy based on semantic meaning which is an intrinsic feature of complex systems themselves. This framework, along with the methods presented provides for a novel framing of agency and a means to rank agents and agency status.

The open ontology and information society

“…Given these discoveries and the “force model” imposed by Newton, causation and determinism were the dominant ideas of reality. This catalyzed a move away from the teleological purposiveness, inherent to Aristotelian philosophy and methodology ( Naidoo, 2023d ).…”

“…Different co-ordinates or contexts entail different semantics, and vice versa . Hence, semantics and co-ordinates are co-constitutive ( Naidoo, 2023d ); semantics constitute spatiotemporal coordinates as much as spatiotemporal constitutes semantics. Semantics are also not just the product of, or constituted by, human brains, but rather exist as varying types of constraints, which can be context-dependent or context-independent ( Naidoo, 2023d ).…”

“…Hence, semantics and co-ordinates are co-constitutive ( Naidoo, 2023d ); semantics constitute spatiotemporal coordinates as much as spatiotemporal constitutes semantics. Semantics are also not just the product of, or constituted by, human brains, but rather exist as varying types of constraints, which can be context-dependent or context-independent ( Naidoo, 2023d ). Nonetheless, human beings do bias semantics within spatiotemporal co-ordinates, within their favor (as individuals or as a species), to maintain their viability and structure relations within a networked, distributed system.…”

“…The first is the raison d'etre of capitalism, wherein relations between individuals are treated as transactional relations between objects (Marx, 1848;Althusser, 2014). An exemplar of the aforementioned is the logical structure of Churchillian dialectics, which involves reciprocal causation (Naidoo, 2023d). Churchillian dialectics is a process where subjects function as objects that freely contract with other objects in society to create/consume objects.…”

“…Marxist dialectic materialism is different from Churchillian dialectics, in that the former posits a reciprocal constitution instead of reciprocal causation ( Naidoo, 2023d ). This paradigm has been confirmed by scientific evidence.…”