Does agency need anything more but a collection of chemical processes? I think agency is a recognition of a specific collection of these processes.To be conscious requires some agency. I don't think moving along a chemical gradient counts as agency.
Well, then in that sense individual cells of your body would be conscious, too, as there are myriad examples of migrating cells that move along a chemical gradient within you. I would vehemently disagree with that, as I have just written 5000 words about how only organisms can be considered to be conscious. Agency, while not this simple, at least requires something of the structure: [input]-->[decision]-->[output]
That's what I'd argue. I believe our cells have a form of consciouness that is much more simple than the organism they are a part of. Doesn't [decision] imply some dualism? :) IMO trying to define what constitutes a decision just moves the ball.Well, then in that sense individual cells of your body would be conscious, too, as there are myriad examples of migrating cells that move along a chemical gradient within you.
Not if you view it as a black box. I'm not making a judgment as to how it happens, just that it does. Dualism only happens when one uses hand waving to force the facts to support one's beliefs.Doesn't [decision] imply some dualism? :) IMO trying to define what constitutes a decision just moves the ball.
Hm. But what if that's the nature of a decision itself? That it is only exists when viewed as a black box? For a cell, I can see it migrate in one direction, then another. However, through investigation I might find that it was due to a chemogradient that potentiated actin polymerization on one side of the cell, etc. Human decisions might be more complex, but are of the same stuff. In that sense, an organism is in the eye of the beholder.