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Agency, Goal-Directed Behavior, and Part-Whole Relationships in Biological Systems.

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  • 1Institute for Life Sciences/Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.

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Summary
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This study introduces a quantifiable concept of biological agency, showing how systems can exhibit goal-directed behavior and problem-solving that exceed the sum of their parts. This perspective applies to various biological scales, from cells to organisms.

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Area of Science:

  • Systems Biology
  • Theoretical Biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Characterizing agency and goal-directed behavior in biological systems is complex.
  • Existing frameworks often struggle to quantify emergent properties across different biological scales.
  • Understanding the relationship between system parts and wholes is crucial for defining biological agency.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present a minimal, concrete notion of agency and goal-directed behavior for biological systems.
  • To explore how system agency can be quantified and emerge as more than the sum of its parts.
  • To provide a framework for analyzing agency in cells, organisms, and other biological scales.

Main Methods:

  • Integrating concepts from dynamical systems, combinatorial problem-solving, and connectionist learning.
  • Quantifying system problem-solving competency in resolving internal 'frustrations' between parts.
  • Defining goal-directed behavior through delayed gratification and long-term gain optimization.

Main Results:

  • Developed a quantifiable perspective on agency applicable to diverse biological scales.
  • Demonstrated how system-level agency can emerge from the organization and interaction of parts.
  • Showcased how acquired, distributed systemic knowledge contributes to agency without explicit system-level reward functions.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed framework offers a concrete, quantifiable approach to biological agency.
  • Emergent agency in biological systems can be understood through problem-solving competency and delayed gratification.
  • This perspective reconciles system-level agency with the dependence on the organization of individual parts.