# agency (capacity)

the ability to cause action

- Computed level: L20 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: A1  ·  Arena: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [ability](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-ability.capacity), [action](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-action.deed), [cause](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cause.reason)

**Through:** the ability and the action together, when linked by a cause, produce change through intentional direction

**Novel properties:**
- intentional change
- directed causation
- initiated effect

## Examples
- The Mars rover Perseverance drilled into Jezero Crater's bedrock on August 6, 2021, capturing a sample for future return to Earth. *(engineering)*
- In 2008, the Federal Reserve invoked emergency powers to lend $85 billion to AIG, altering financial market trajectories. *(economics)*
- CRISPR-Cas9 edited the HBB gene in hematopoietic stem cells to cure sickle cell disease in a 2023 clinical trial. *(biology)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-agency.capacity*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-agency.capacity.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*