How Organisms Gained Causal Independence and How It Might Be Quantified

Area of Science:

• Cybernetics
• Evolutionary Biology
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Autonomous agency requires organizational closure and embodiment of goals.
• While organizational closure is studied, the role of internal goals in cell signaling and nervous systems is less understood.
• Organisms are the only known entities exhibiting both features.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate biological insights into cybernetic theory of autonomy.
• To trace the evolutionary development of autonomy in organisms.
• To characterize stages of autonomy based on nested goal-directed control loops (will-nestedness N).

Main Methods:

• Conceptual integration of cybernetic theory with biological examples.
• Tracing evolutionary steps in autonomy: homeostasis, perception-action, action selection, cognition, and memory-based self-modeling.
• Characterizing autonomy by the number of nested goal-directed control loops (N).

Main Results:

• Autonomy evolved through five key stages, each increasing the complexity of nested control loops (N).
• Organismal features like tegument, receptors, and reprogramming mechanisms contribute to causal independence.
• Higher will-nestedness (N) correlates with increased causal independence.

Conclusions:

• Organisms are cybernetic phenomena defined by their information structure and causal closure (maximum N).
• Evolution has driven an increase in N, leading to greater causal independence.
• Causal independence may be quantifiable using measures from Integrated Information Theory.