I had a thought about this that was too long for a comment, so I’ve posted it separately. Bottom line:
When thinking about embedded agency it might be helpful to drop the notion of ‘agency’ and ‘agents’ sometimes, because it might be confusing or underdefined. Instead one could think of [sub-]processes running according to the laws of physics. Or of algorithms running on a stack of interpreters running on the hardware of the universe.
I had a thought about this that was too long for a comment, so I’ve posted it separately. Bottom line: