A Quantifiable Information-Processing Hierarchy Provides a Necessary Condition for Detecting Agency

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03498v1
• Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2026 01:26:20 GMT
• Title: A Quantifiable Information-Processing Hierarchy Provides a Necessary Condition for Detecting Agency
• Authors: Brett J. Kagan, Valentina Baccetti, Brian D. Earp, J. Lomax Boyd, Julian Savulescu, Adeel Razi,
• Abstract summary: Existing definitions tend to rely on top-down descriptions that are difficult to quantify.<n>We propose a bottom-up framework grounded in a system's information-processing order.<n>We illustrate the framework with neurophysiological and computational examples, including thermostats and receptor-like memristors.
• Score: 1.088537320059347
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: As intelligent systems are developed across diverse substrates - from machine learning models and neuromorphic hardware to in vitro neural cultures - understanding what gives a system agency has become increasingly important. Existing definitions, however, tend to rely on top-down descriptions that are difficult to quantify. We propose a bottom-up framework grounded in a system's information-processing order: the extent to which its transformation of input evolves over time. We identify three orders of information processing. Class I systems are reactive and memoryless, mapping inputs directly to outputs. Class II systems incorporate internal states that provide memory but follow fixed transformation rules. Class III systems are adaptive; their transformation rules themselves change as a function of prior activity. While not sufficient on their own, these dynamics represent necessary informational conditions for genuine agency. This hierarchy offers a measurable, substrate-independent way to identify the informational precursors of agency. We illustrate the framework with neurophysiological and computational examples, including thermostats and receptor-like memristors, and discuss its implications for the ethical and functional evaluation of systems that may exhibit agency.

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