The agent as cell: first configuration exhibiting bounded autonomy
Individual elements
(necessary, not sufficient)
Lm
LLM
Sm
Sem mem
Rt / Wt
Tools
Es / Ws
State
Is / Ds
Skills
not autonomous
alone
not autonomous
alone
bond +
register
governance boundary (membrane)
Orchestrator
(nucleus)
Lm
Sm
Tools
State
(organelles)
Emergence
Bounded
autonomous
behavior
The agent does something
no individual part could
do on its own
An agent is not found in the world. It is constituted through deliberate assembly and registration.