  We present some arguments why existing methods for representing agents fall
short in applications crucial to artificial life. Using a thought experiment
involving a fictitious dynamical systems model of the biosphere we argue that
the metabolism, motility, and the concept of counterfactual variation should be
compatible with any agent representation in dynamical systems. We then propose
an information-theoretic notion of \emph{integrated spatiotemporal patterns}
which we believe can serve as the basic building block of an agent definition.
We argue that these patterns are capable of solving the problems mentioned
before. We also test this in some preliminary experiments.
