concept

Cognitive light cone

A figure proposed by biologist Michael Levin for measuring the "reach" of any agent: the spatio-temporal boundary of events it can measure, model, and attempt to affect. A single cell has a tiny cognitive light cone, fixed on its immediate local metabolic goals. A human brain has an immense one, spanning decades into the future and encompassing abstract concepts. Sizing a system by its cognitive light cone asks what it can care about, and how far and wide - not whether it is conscious.