Thoughtforms Life Intrinsic Motivation in Evolved, Engineered, and Hybrid Systems
Sep 20, 2025
Explore the fascinating world of intrinsic motivation in biological and engineered systems. The discussion navigates the continuum from rewiring systems to those that respond to social cues. Discover how morphogenesis acts as collective problem-solving and how agency exists at the molecular level. Delve into how regeneration connects with goal-directed behavior and the ethical stakes of creating hybrid beings. The introduction of xenobots reveals surprising self-organization and motivation, while the implications for AI and evolving technologies spark thought-provoking questions.
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Motivation As Cross-Scale Cause
- Motivation means the large-scale causes of behavior across systems, from molecules to minds.
- Understanding motivations lets engineers steer systems beyond simple algorithmic design.
Continuum Of Agency
- Systems lie on a continuum from rewiring-only to psychologically communicable agents.
- You must experimentally probe where a system fits instead of assuming categories like 'machine' or 'organism'.
Forms And Behaviors Are The Same
- Forms of anatomy and behavior are instances of the same underlying patterns in different spaces.
- Morphogenesis is navigation through an anatomical problem space analogous to behavioral navigation.
