May 23, 2026 07:30 PM
(This post was last modified: May 24, 2026 12:15 AM by Magical Realist.)
Was thinking last night about the concept of human agency--which is traditionally the notion of some property in the human being enabling them to deliberately take action and cause events. I was contemplating this particularly in light of the explosion of technology in the past 50 years. IS agency some kind of pure locus of power in us to be able to have effects on our world, something perhaps unequally distributed among humans making some great achievers in the world while others are basically failures? I don't think so. I believe the principle of agency has to be extended beyond just our brains to include all the means of acting upon the world that exist thruout our technologies and our social structures.
For instance one may think some pot-smoking teenager in his basement eating Doritos all day has very little agency in this world. But what if this kid was one of the best hackers in the world? His agency and his power to cause events extends itself and increases exponentially beyond just what he can do with his body.
Or take someone like the president, basically an 80 year mentally-incompetent douche virtually helpless without advisors or assistants. And yet AS president, as occupying the position of power, his agency in the world is enormous in that he generally has the last word on policies affecting our nation as well as all the nations in the world.
Think then of human agency less as a trait inherent in someone's brain and more as a system of enablements and capabilities extending far beyond their brains into the physical world. Human causality less like "willpower" and more like...well...more like some magical choreography of making things happen. Like all the things you thoughtlessly do to make getting food and supplies for yourself happen. Our intentions propagate beyond our bodies into a world where everything is a tool or equipment for getting things done..
For instance one may think some pot-smoking teenager in his basement eating Doritos all day has very little agency in this world. But what if this kid was one of the best hackers in the world? His agency and his power to cause events extends itself and increases exponentially beyond just what he can do with his body.
Or take someone like the president, basically an 80 year mentally-incompetent douche virtually helpless without advisors or assistants. And yet AS president, as occupying the position of power, his agency in the world is enormous in that he generally has the last word on policies affecting our nation as well as all the nations in the world.
Think then of human agency less as a trait inherent in someone's brain and more as a system of enablements and capabilities extending far beyond their brains into the physical world. Human causality less like "willpower" and more like...well...more like some magical choreography of making things happen. Like all the things you thoughtlessly do to make getting food and supplies for yourself happen. Our intentions propagate beyond our bodies into a world where everything is a tool or equipment for getting things done..
