causal

Agency Evolves to Handle Unpredictability via Decisions

Agency evolves precisely where the environment is unpredictable: nature cannot in principle specify what a squirrel should do with a particular nut in a particular landscape, so instead of determining the action it builds in a decision-making apparatus—the organism gathers information and makes the best decision—meaning the apparatus is evolved/determined but the particular decision on a given occasion is not.

causalpending

Speaker

Michael Tomasello

Evidence Quote

agency evolves when there are unpredictabilities and nature builds in an apparatus for the individual to deal with those unpredictabilities through what I call informed decision making.

Source

225 | Michael Tomasello on The Social Origins of Cognition and AgencySean Carroll's Mindscape
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:05:28 AM

My Notes

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