title: Molecular autonomous agents.
abstract: I consider an autonomous agent to be a physical system able to act on its own behalf, such as a bacterium swimming up a glucose gradient. I tentatively define an autonomous agent to be a system capable of self-reproduction and at least capable of performing one thermodynamic work cycle. I give a hypothetical chemical example. I then explore the increasingly odd implications of this definition.
authors.affiliation: The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kauffman
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D004735:Energy Transfer; D005246:Feedback; D025461:Feedback, Physiological; D006706:Homeostasis; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D004247:DNA