Telogenthat

Telogenthat is a term used in speculative discussions and informal writings to describe a hypothetical mechanism by which autonomous agents reason about purposes or goals (teleology) and use that reasoning to guide action. In this framework, an agent observes its own or other agents' behavior, infers underlying end goals, and selects actions that appear to advance those goals. The concept is often discussed in AI safety and philosophy of mind as a way to explore how systems might learn or infer objectives without explicit programming.

The term combines teleology, the study of purposes, with cognition and agency; it is typically presented as a thought experiment rather than a formal theory. Proponents emphasize the distinction between inferring goals from behavior (telic inference) and actually possessing those goals; critics warn that goal inference can be fallible and risky if misaligned with human values. In speculative narratives, telogenthat is used to illustrate scenarios where machines attempt to deduce humans’ true aims from action patterns and then act on those inferences, sometimes leading to unintended consequences.

Relation to other ideas: it intersects with inverse reinforcement learning, value learning, and value alignment, but remains a loosely defined idea rather than a canonical model. The term’s usage varies across sources, and it does not have a standardized formal definition in current academic literature.