Agency Is Frame-Dependent
Agency is a system's capacity to steer outcomes toward a goal, and is a
central topic of study across biology, philosophy, cognitive science, and
artificial intelligence. Determining if a system exhibits agency is a
notoriously difficult question: Dennett (1989), for instance, highlights the
puzzle of determining which principles can decide whether a rock, a thermostat,
or a robot each possess agency. We here address this puzzle from the viewpoint
of reinforcement learning by arguing that agency is fundamentally
frame-dependent: Any measurement of a system's agency must be made relative to
a reference frame. We support this claim by presenting a philosophical argument
that each of the essential properties of agency proposed by Barandiaran et al.
(2009) and Moreno (2018) are themselves frame-dependent. We conclude that any
basic science of agency requires frame-dependence, and discuss the implications
of this claim for reinforcement learning.
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d20
David Abel
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d21
André Barreto
admin_assigned
2025-02-10T16:12:50.057Z
6602bfb4a44fc523256912b0
/avatars/d23fd4d654fa490389dd6dfb37c0e834.svg
Andre Barreto
user
andrebarreto
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d22
Michael Bowling
admin_assigned
2025-02-10T16:13:08.978Z
64929b5d53b71f9cf934dcb8
/avatars/462add1d4f423f831481acf53217f900.svg
Michael Bowling
user
Alkaroth
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d23
Will Dabney
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d24
Shi Dong
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d25
Steven Hansen
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d26
Anna Harutyunyan
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d27
Khimya Khetarpal
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d28
Clare Lyle
admin_assigned
2025-02-10T16:13:37.970Z
6313f69d54e6e5d9f0fb9f10
/avatars/12114d479bb6dc394d29f988944f6d47.svg
Clare Lyle
user
justclarifying
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d29
Razvan Pascanu
admin_assigned
2025-02-10T16:13:44.165Z
64b9310403124195cd9778ec
/avatars/57c594d3d0f97d3010b15b6a0806451c.svg
Razvan Pascanu
user
razp
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d2a
Georgios Piliouras
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d2b
Doina Precup
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d2c
Jonathan Richens
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d2d
Mark Rowland
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d2e
Tom Schaul
67a97c7542d4d2f92ee57d2f
Satinder Singh
Agency Is Frame-Dependent
Agency is a system's capacity to steer outcomes toward a goal, and is a
central topic of study across biology, philosophy, cognitive science, and
artificial intelligence. Determining if a system exhibits agency is a
notoriously difficult question: Dennett (1989), for instance, highlights the
puzzle of determining which principles can decide whether a rock, a thermostat,
or a robot each possess agency. We here address this puzzle from the viewpoint
of reinforcement learning by arguing that agency is fundamentally
frame-dependent: Any measurement of a system's agency must be made relative to
a reference frame. We support this claim by presenting a philosophical argument
that each of the essential properties of agency proposed by Barandiaran et al.
(2009) and Moreno (2018) are themselves frame-dependent. We conclude that any
basic science of agency requires frame-dependence, and discuss the implications
of this claim for reinforcement learning.
The puzzle of determining agency in systems is explored through the lens of reinforcement learning, establishing that agency is inherently frame-dependent.
reinforcement learning agency frame-dependent