225 | Michael Tomasello on The Social Origins of Cognition and Agency
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
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The Evolution of Agency and Evolved Behavior
The concept of agency in the context of evolution refers to the ability of organisms to make decisions that cannot be solely determined by their genetic programming. This is illustrated by the evolved behavior of squirrels in caching nuts for the winter, which demonstrates a level of decision-making beyond deterministic control. The speaker emphasizes that as organisms become more complex, nature builds in a lot of flexibility, allowing for behaviors that are not entirely determined by genetic programming.
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