The Concept of Goal Directedness

A few years ago now, I tried to come up with a framework where we could try to understand what a self is. What I wanted was a definition in a framework where you could compare in the same space cells of radically different construction and provenance. And one thing that defines your degree of Selfhood is the scale of your goals. So if you're some sort of bacterium, then your goal is to increase the local sugar concentration right now. If you're a human, uniquely, you might have goals that are longer than your own lifespan.