---
title: "Nano-intentionality"
description: "W."
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/nano-intentionality"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/nano-intentionality"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Nano-intentionality

> A working definition written for this wiki from the reading notes; not Antikythera's own wording. From Antikythera Wiki (https://antikythera.wiki/terms/nano-intentionality), an independent guide to Antikythera's published work.

W. Tecumseh Fitch's (2008) term for the capacity of every eukaryotic cell to perceive its surroundings and respond by rearranging its own morphology and molecules, "based on past (individual and species) history"; human cognition is a stratification of this. Transistors and thermostats lack it — a "practical," not in-principle, difference. Tripaldi uses it for SBI: DishBrain's neurons formed functional connectivity across distance, so silicon AI depends on an unchanging substrate while SBI depends on the substrate self-organizing. Watch the double edge: Fitch's own caveat makes the concept compatible with functionalism.

## Appears in

- [Substrates Unbound](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/substrates) (2025-11-21)
- [Cognitive Infrastructures](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/coginfra) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._