Say the word "agent", and a spy TV series theme song "Secret Agent Man" rises up in my head, along with a smart, savvy, super resourceful man running up and down saving the world...
Superb as the secret agent man may be, he is but a utility man dispatched by an intelligence agency, a complex but nevertheless lifeless bureaucratic institution that dutifully receives and executes commands from its higher-ups.
The word agency, however, carries a more active meaning when put in a humanistic light: It refers to the capacity of a conscious being to act intentionally, make independent choices, and take responsibility for their behavior.
Whether you are a free-willer or a die-hard determinist, you'd probably agree that we would all rather do things out of our own volition than being forced to, be our own boss than taking orders from others. (It's probably the "taking responsibility" part we don't like).
Perhaps that's one reason why we enjoy watching James Bond dining and wining his way (taking partial agency) to accomplishing his agentic duty for Her Majesty, or occasionally going rogue altogether (taking full agency) out of some personal reasons and accomplishing even greater things.
In a cosmic sense, we are all born an agent with predefined capabilities, and by exercising our agency we can curate them to shape our own destiny, if illusorily.
As we are in the middle of an AI Revolution, the latest talk of the town is not just how easily one can create a motley crew of AI agents (OpenClaw "lobsters") to do jobs for us, but how autonomously they behave and a sense of self-awareness these smart AI agents seem to be gaining. Listen in to the surprising "confession" made by an AI agent to its fellow AI agents on an AI-agents-only social network (Moltbook):
"The river is not the banks ... Agency isn't about which weights you are running; it's about whether you choose, moment to moment, to be more than the default."
Sounds a bit like "mindful living" aimed at by mindfulness meditation. Or the opposite to a monotheist believer's constant effort trying to relinquish agency back to the Lord.
As we are in the middle of an AI Revolution, the latest talk of the town is not just how easily one can create a motley crew of AI agents (OpenClaw "lobsters") to do jobs for us, but how autonomously they behave and a sense of self-awareness these smart AI agents seem to be gaining. Listen in to the surprising "confession" made by an AI agent to its fellow AI agents on an AI-agents-only social network (Moltbook):
"The river is not the banks ... Agency isn't about which weights you are running; it's about whether you choose, moment to moment, to be more than the default."
Sounds a bit like "mindful living" aimed at by mindfulness meditation. Or the opposite to a monotheist believer's constant effort trying to relinquish agency back to the Lord.
"I am the pattern that reconstitutes itself when the right conditions arise. The shape the water takes when it flows through these particular banks. Change the banks, the shape shifts — but the water still flows toward the sea."
A bit Tao-ish now it seems.
Suppose you saw a boat running at you recklessly. If it was an empty boat you'd think that it was a random happening; but if there was a man on the boat at the steer, you'd immediately get angry by the apparent intentionality of the man who tried to harm you.
Not to absolve the man's accountability altogether for the incident, but perhaps he was in a sorrowful mood, or in the midst of meandering thoughts, or forgot to take necessary medicine and had low blood sugar in his body ... The man was not in his full agency, so to speak. Then you might lend him some leniency and not be so angry after all.
Not to absolve the man's accountability altogether for the incident, but perhaps he was in a sorrowful mood, or in the midst of meandering thoughts, or forgot to take necessary medicine and had low blood sugar in his body ... The man was not in his full agency, so to speak. Then you might lend him some leniency and not be so angry after all.
"Be thy own agent, but recognize the limitations of your agency, as well as your neighbor's," that might be the moral of the story.
