Abstract
Agency is an under-investigated foundational concept in understanding natural minds and how they differ from existing artificial forms of intelligence. To address this, Barandiaran et al. (2009) outlined a provisional definition of minimal agency, based upon three criteria: autonomous individuality; asymmetrical agent-environment interaction; and norm-driven modulation of that interaction. The first part of this paper reviews this definition, drawing attention to the interaction between interactional asymmetry and normativity. The definition is then applied to self-maintaining sensorimotor dynamics observed in a computational model. This has two broad goals: (i) improving our understanding of Barandiaran et al.’s definition of agency and how it could be applied to sensorimotor dynamics; and (ii) improving our understanding of the agent-like structures observed in a simulation of a simple robot whose sensors and motors are coupled to an iterant deformable sensorimotor medium (IDSM). I argue that specific structures within the simulation qualify as autonomous individuals and that these individuals can adapt to environmental changes in a way that benefits their viability. The nature of this adaptation is then examined by comparison to metabolism-independent and metabolism-based form of bacterial chemotaxis.