Related papers: Agency in Physics
What are the physical requirements for agency? We investigate whether a purely quantum system (one evolving unitarily in a coherent regime without decoherence or collapse) can satisfy three minimal conditions for agency: an agent must be…
After two decades of research on indefinite causality, a philosophical lesson emerges: the tension between operational quantum theory and dynamical spacetime physics is unbridgeable if one believes both types of theories to be fundamental.…
An information agent is viewed as a deductive database consisting of 3 parts: an observation database containing the facts the agent has observed or sensed from its surrounding environment, an input database containing the information the…
The deep connection between entropy and information is discussed in terms of both classical and quantum physics. The mechanism of information transfer between systems via entanglement is explored in the context of decoherence theory. The…
This paper addresses the critical challenge of mesa-optimization in AI safety by providing a formal definition of agency and a framework for its analysis. Agency is conceptualized as a Continuous Representation of accumulated experience…
There is significant concern about the impact of generative AI on society. Modern AI tools are capable of generating ever more realistic text, images, and videos, and functional code, from minimal prompts. Accompanying this rise in ability…
According to E.T. Jaynes and E.P. Wigner, entropy is an anthropomorphic concept in the sense that in a physical system correspond many thermodynamic systems. The physical system can be examined from many points of view each time examining…
This paper proposes a simple model to capture the complexity of multi-layer systems where their constituent layers affect, are affected by, each other. The physical layer is a circuit composed by a power source and resistors in parallel.…
Populations of agents often exhibit surprising collective behavior emerging from simple local interactions. The common belief is that the agents must posses a certain level of cognitive abilities for such an emerging collective behavior to…
Dividing the world into subsystems is an important component of the scientific method. The choice of subsystems, however, is not defined a priori. Typically, it is dictated by experimental capabilities, which may be different for different…
This paper develops a control-theoretic framework for analyzing agentic systems embedded within feedback control loops, where an AI agent may adapt controller parameters, select among control strategies, invoke external tools, reconfigure…
Humans and animals explore their environment and acquire useful skills even in the absence of clear goals, exhibiting intrinsic motivation. The study of intrinsic motivation in artificial agents is concerned with the following question:…
A network of agents is considered whose decision processes are described by the quantum decision theory previously advanced by the authors. Decision making is done by evaluating the utility of alternatives, their attractiveness, and the…
We ground the asymmetry of causal relations in the internal physical states of a special kind of open and irreversible physical system, a causal agent. A causal agent is an autonomous physical system, maintained in a steady state, far from…
Any scientific attempt to explain consciousness is tasked with reconciling the third person objective perspective of science with our first person subjective experience of the world. A good point of departure is to consider situations in…
Entropy can signify different things: For instance, heat transfer in thermodynamics or a measure of information in data analysis. Many entropies have been introduced and it can be difficult to ascertain their different importance and…
The concept of an embodied intelligent agent is a key concept in modern artificial intelligence and robotics. Physically, an agent is an open system embedded in an environment that it interacts with through sensors and actuators. It…
This paper presents the Artificial Agency Program (AAP), a position and research agenda for building AI systems as reality embedded, resource-bounded agents whose development is driven by curiosity-as-learning-progress under physical and…
Sense of agency is one factor that influences people's preferences for robot assistance and a phenomenon from cognitive science that represents the experience of control over one's environment. However, in assistive robotics literature, we…
This letter seeks to illuminate the profound connection between complexity, self-organization, emergent behaviour, pattern formation, and entropy concepts that are foundational to understanding our universe. By examining these ideas through…