---
title: "Substrate Agency"
description: "Laura Tripaldi's central claim in Substrates Unbound: the matter a technology is made of (silicon, cultured neurons, the alchemist's blood and minerals) helps decide what that technology can do, rather than lying inertly beneath a function assigned from above."
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/substrate-agency"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/substrate-agency"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Substrate Agency

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

[Laura Tripaldi](https://antikythera.wiki/people/laura-tripaldi)'s central claim in Substrates Unbound: the matter a technology is made of (silicon, cultured neurons, the alchemist's blood and minerals) helps decide what that technology can do, rather than lying inertly beneath a function assigned from above. She begins with the word itself: "sub stratum" builds subordination into the concept, and the hardware/software split turns it into design doctrine. Both technomorphism (substrates interchangeable) and biomimesis (the natural substrate uniquely privileged) inherit this passivity, and neither, she argues, can describe DishBrain, whose Pong performance differed with the species of neuron it was grown from under identical inputs. Agency shows itself at the interface, where two materials acquire properties neither had alone. The position is the declared opponent of Functionalism as Agüera y Arcas states it, and is developed through Substrate Ontology and Nano-intentionality. Bratton's Accept All Cookies asserts the opposite premise outright: computation, like life, is substrate agnostic.

## Appears in

- [Substrates Unbound](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/substrates) (2025-11-21)
- [What Is Intelligence?](https://antikythera.wiki/work/book/what-is-intelligence) (2025-09-23)
- [Accept All Cookies](https://antikythera.wiki/work/book/accept-all-cookies) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._