[sdenton4]

You can factor humans out with the same trick: All economic activity is driven by the needs of micro-organisms. We mainly observe these desires and economic transactions through their conglomeration into joint entities (ie, humans).

Corporate and state decision making is, I would argue, often completely distinct from the desires and needs of the individuals that make up the entity. As an example, no individual /needs/ a particular compliance check to pass, but the overall entity (corporation) does, and so allocates money and human effort to ensure the check passes. It's a need of the conglomerate entity, not the individuals within it.

[mjburgess]

There is no "trick", the relevant sufficient and necessary properties for an agent to give rise to economic transactions are likewise not possessed by a micro-organism.

[sdenton4]

Microorganism A is good at producing (say) insulin, but needs oxygen to do it. Microorganism B is good at ferrying oxygen around. Microorganism C is good at extracting oxygen from the air and attaching it to B.

Each of these cells has specialized tasks which they perform as part of the contract of getting to survive longer in the superorganism. Each has 'promises' (functions) to fulfill, and other organisms provide for their needs. The contract is set up on evolutionary timescales, rather than human timescales, but your requirements are met...

[mjburgess]

That you put quotes around 'promises' shows you already understand the issue with your comment. That you cannot disquote it, is the issue.

You seem like you're trying to find a way of strawmaing my position in order to score points, so I'm not going to reply further. If you have an interest in understanding the basis of economics, ask an LLM