Competency as a continuous and discrete parameter in multi-scale agential matter
Agential matter is the view that the layers of biological systems, from molecular networks to ecosystems, have agendas and competencies of their own.7 Levin and colleagues treat intelligence as a continuum, so systems can be more or less competent at navigating a space.4 The spaces include transcriptional, physiological, metabolic and anatomical ones.7 Competency can also be set as a number in models.5
- Earliest held
- 1900, Loeb, J.
- Most discussed in
- Evolutionary Implications of Self-Assembling…, 2024
- In the library
- 81 passages in 16 works
- Rewritten
- 2026-11-03
Spaces before agents
Loeb (1900) wrote of a physiological space whose main coordinates are set by structural features of the body.1 He said he did not intend to discuss the nature of space sensations, only where they might sit in a future mechanics of the brain. Fields and Levin (2022) argue that transcriptional space became obvious only once omics tools allowed expression to be followed over time. They say the research community has not yet viewed such movement as active navigation by a cell. Control systems acting on the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome are usually called mechanisms.2
Competency as a continuum
Rorot (2022) summarises Levin's position. Morphogenesis counts as navigation of morphospace, and transcriptional and physiological spaces are other examples. Intelligence is a continuum, so rats and slime moulds need not be treated as equivalent, as rats can be regarded as more competent in navigating spaces.4 Fields and Levin (2022) apply this to medicine. They note that Pavlov trained organs as well as whole animals and understood physiological space. They suggest such experiments can now be run with higher-resolution tools.3 They propose shaping cell behaviour in a reward space alongside work on genes and proteins.
Competency as a number
Shreesha and Levin (2023) made competency a discrete parameter in a simulation. Each competent embryo receives an integer that sets how many bubble-sort swaps occur during its development. The integer is usually far below the number of swaps needed for maximum fitness.5 Competent embryos starting at 2.5% of the population did not dominate even at a level of 95. At 10% a level of 75 sufficed, at 20% a level of 40, and at 30% a level of 10.6 Dominance took two or three generations.
Recent evolutionary work
Hartl, Risi and Levin (2024) evolved self-assembling cybernetic materials and tracked a genotypic competency level against fitness. At intermediate noise levels, competency often reached a minimum when fitness was about 64.8 They describe this as a minimally required yet finite level. Lineages that solved morphogenesis efficiently also tended to solve morphostasis efficiently. Pai and colleagues (2025) found greater gene count variability in Xenobots than in age-matched Xenopus embryos. They say this possibly indicates exploratory adaptation in transcriptional space.9
All these facts indicate that the main coordinates of the physiological space are determined by structural peculiarities of our body.
Loeb, J., 1900 · Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology · open at passage 454Control systems acting on the transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome or on the “interactome” that spans all three are typically thought of as mechanisms
Fields C, Levin M, 2022 · Competency in Navigating Arbitrary Spaces as an Invariant for Analyzing… · open at passage 12He understood the physiological space, and his experiments on training the pancreas and other body systems can now be performed with much higher-resolution tools.
Fields C, Levin M, 2022 · Competency in Navigating Arbitrary Spaces as an Invariant for Analyzing… · open at passage 67Importantly, Levin regards intelligence as a continuum in this regard so that we can discuss systems possessing less or more intelligence, and hence need not treat rats and slime moulds as equivalent
Rorot W, 2022 · Counting with Cilia: The Role of Morphological Computation in Basal Cognition… · open at passage 43This integer determines how many successive bubble-sort swaps will take place during its developmental cycle.
Shreesha L, Levin M, 2023 · Cellular Competency during Development Alters Evolutionary Dynamics in an… · open at passage 17At 10%, embryos with a competency level of 75 could dominate; at 20%, the competency level required for domination decreased to 40; and at 30%, competent embryos dominated with a competency as low as 10
Shreesha L, Levin M, 2023 · Cellular Competency during Development Alters Evolutionary Dynamics in an… · open at passage 24Increasingly realized, however, is the fact that those layers are not merely complex but actually active “agential matter”, which has agendas and competencies of its own [1,2].
Hartl B, Risi S, Levin M, 2024 · Evolutionary Implications of Self-Assembling Cybernetic Materials with… · open at passage 2For intermediate noise levels 0<ξc≪1, we find that PD,j often assumes a minimum (i.e., a minimally required yet finite competency level) when the evolutionary process reaches a fitness level of ≈64.
Hartl B, Risi S, Levin M, 2024 · Evolutionary Implications of Self-Assembling Cybernetic Materials with… · open at passage 57there is significantly greater gene count variability in these Xenobots compared to age-matched Xenopus embryos, possibly indicating exploratory adaptation in the transcriptional space
Pai VP, Pio-Lopez L, Sperry MM, Erickson P, Tayyebi P…, 2025 · Basal Xenobot transcriptomics reveals changes and novel control modality in… · open at passage 13