Thanks Karl, that’s a really useful shortform and I’m sorry I wasn’t already aware of it. This is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I said “there are many agentic lenses people have constructed”. I am planning a follow up point about this but for now I would like to link to your shortform there to highlight what I mean.
I do think there is a general sense of the terms agent and agency, as referring to goal directness alongside something like coherence seeking or strategic planning, that get bandied about in AI safety, which is what I am trying to refer to here. However, I absolutely agree with you that if we were more specific about our use of the term and the specific context within which each use makes sense the kind of teleological thinking that I am arguing against here would likely not emerge.
Thanks Karl, that’s a really useful shortform and I’m sorry I wasn’t already aware of it. This is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I said “there are many agentic lenses people have constructed”. I am planning a follow up point about this but for now I would like to link to your shortform there to highlight what I mean.
I do think there is a general sense of the terms agent and agency, as referring to goal directness alongside something like coherence seeking or strategic planning, that get bandied about in AI safety, which is what I am trying to refer to here. However, I absolutely agree with you that if we were more specific about our use of the term and the specific context within which each use makes sense the kind of teleological thinking that I am arguing against here would likely not emerge.