Maybe it’s better to start with something we do understand, then, to make the contrast clear. Can we study the “real” agency of a thermometer, and if we can, what would that research program look like?
My sense is that you can study the real agency of a thermometer, but that it’s not helpful for understanding amoebas. That is, there isn’t much to study in “abstract” agency, independent of the substrate it’s implemented on. For the same reason I wouldn’t study amoebas to understand humans; they’re constructed too differently.
But it’s possible that I don’t understand what you’re trying to do.
That is, there isn’t much to study in “abstract” agency, independent of the substrate it’s implemented on
Yeah, that’s the question, is agency substrate-independent or not, and if it is, does it help to pick a specific substrate, or would one make more progress by doing it more abstractly, or maybe both?
Maybe it’s better to start with something we do understand, then, to make the contrast clear. Can we study the “real” agency of a thermometer, and if we can, what would that research program look like?
My sense is that you can study the real agency of a thermometer, but that it’s not helpful for understanding amoebas. That is, there isn’t much to study in “abstract” agency, independent of the substrate it’s implemented on. For the same reason I wouldn’t study amoebas to understand humans; they’re constructed too differently.
But it’s possible that I don’t understand what you’re trying to do.
Yeah, that’s the question, is agency substrate-independent or not, and if it is, does it help to pick a specific substrate, or would one make more progress by doing it more abstractly, or maybe both?