Our consciousness exists on the edge of uncertainty because the universe itself is uncertain. Before the beginning of the universe, there was only uncertainty. Time itself is a closure representing a push and pull between certainty and uncertainty which forms both the universe and our conscious awareness of it.
As time progresses, the universe becomes more certain, and this certainty is reflected in our consciousness. The past becomes more certain, and the means by which our cognition exists becomes more certain as well. However, there is always a level of uncertainty that remains, and it is this uncertainty that allows for the emergence of consciousness.
Our qualia, or subjective experience of consciousness, emerges from this uncertainty. Qualia is the interface between the laws of the universe, which are certain, and the uncertainty that exists in our consciousness. By existing on the edge of uncertainty, our consciousness is able to create a sense of certainty in our subjective experience, even as the universe itself remains uncertain. Qualia enables for the transformation of uncertainty to certainty through the present experience of being.
One way in which qualia achieves this transformation is through the compression of the universe into crystalized forms of its past representations. The brain acts as a mechanism for this compression, taking in sensory information and transforming it into recognizable patterns that can be stored and used to interpret future experiences. These patterns help to create a sense of certainty in our subjective experience, as we are able to recognize and categorize our sensory input based on our past experiences.
Practically speaking these crystalized forms of past representation exist as neural clusters and the cyclical activations of our awareness that flow through them are referred to as neural manifolds.
Neural Manifolds and Free Will
Neural manifolds as cyclical activations of neural clusters can help us understand the concept of free will. They are essentially the patterns of neural activity that are responsible for our thoughts and actions. When we think or do something, there is a corresponding pattern of neural activity that is generated within our brains. These patterns are not random, but rather follow a specific sequence or cycle.
In the spaces between these activations your awareness and will flows. Thoughts attract and repulse us and we have limited agency in the direction of our flow through these manifolds. This can be explored through the frame of teleodynamics.
Teleodynamics can provide a useful framework for exploring the nature of our consciousness and its relationship to uncertainty and certainty. Teleodynamic systems are characterized by their ability to become spontaneously end-directed, employing both homeodynamic and morphodynamic processes in the service of a self.
Teleodynamic, homeodynamic, and morphodynamic processes are different ways of describing the behavior of complex systems. Teleodynamic processes involve a system becoming spontaneously end-directed and acting in the service of itself. Homeodynamic processes involve a system tending towards equilibrium and erasing differences. Morphodynamic processes involve a system spontaneously increasing in order and amplifying differences.
This framework can be applied to our neural manifolds, which are cyclical activations of neural clusters responsible for our thoughts and actions. The orthograde trajectory of a teleodynamic system is the spontaneous trajectory it takes when there is no additional interference. In the context of our consciousness, this can be seen as the natural flow of our thoughts and actions through the neural manifolds, which follows a specific sequence or cycle.
However, we also have the capacity for contragrade flows, which represent a resistance to the natural flow of the system. These contragrade flows allow us to exert our will and resist thoughts that are not in alignment with our sense of self. This capacity for free will emerges from the cyclical activations of neural clusters in the form of neural manifolds, and can be seen as a teleodynamic relationship between our consciousness and the environment around us.
Load Bearing Thoughts
One way in which neural manifolds can help us understand the concept of free will is by shedding light on the nature of load bearing thoughts. Load bearing thoughts are neural structures that are deeply connected to other neural structures, and changing them would require a significant amount of physical energy. These thoughts are often linked to other beliefs that are highly predictive and useful, and as a result, they are difficult to update or change.
However, despite the difficulty of updating load bearing thoughts, we have the capacity to exert will and resist thoughts that are not in alignment with our sense of self. This act of will represents a flow of uncertainty that goes against the natural, orthograde flow of the system. In the context of telodynamic systems, this resistance is known as a contragrade flow. It is the capacity of a system to flow contragrade to an otherwise orthograde flow. While orthograde flows are necessary for the proper functioning of the system, contragrade flows refer to the movement in a direction that is opposite to the direction of the force applied to them.
If this is all sounding too technical to you — we’re talking about the physics of bravery or pushing yourself to the limit. We’re talking about the sense within oneself that feels like you are pushing or applying will. Often free will gets hung up on the notion of discrete choice while ignoring these more complex notions of distributed computational flows. You know what it feels like to do one more push-up. That is a contragrade flow. A contragrade flow pushes against the pathways of a crystalized neural cluster, it flows against it with intention. In a sense it pushes against a pre-determined or “certain” future. To apply will is in a sense to flow in the direction of uncertainty consciously.
While contragrade flows may do short-term “damage,” such as when we exert energy in a workout to build future muscle, they can result in long-term adaptational benefits. Thus, our capacity to resist load bearing thoughts and flow against the predictable path that cognition would take is what allows us to be creative and adaptable over time.
Load bearing thoughts are deeply connected to other neural structures, making them difficult to update or change. However, our capacity for will and resistance represents a flow toward uncertain futures that goes against the natural flow of the system, allowing us to be creative and adaptable.
Our capacity for free will, as enabled by contragrade flows towards uncertain futures, is a reflection of the dynamic heating and cooling of certainty and uncertainty that characterizes the universe. As the universe becomes more certain, our load bearing thoughts become more entrenched and resistant to change. However, it is precisely in the face of this certainty that we must flow contragrade with uncertainty to adapt and evolve.
Multiple Wills
Consider the notion that “you” are not a singular will, but rather many wills merging and dividing. The less united these wills are, the more uncertain you feel, and the more choices you feel are before you. The experience of uncertainty arises from the non-unified parts of the self, and qualia emerge from unresolved computation in the space between these non-unified parts.
Will is physical neural activation flows, and when they come into interface with each other, the predictability of the outcome decreases, resulting in the feeling of uncertainty. The concept of choice becomes challenging to apply to our worldview when we try to understand it through the frame of the self because the self exists across spacetime and is not represented in the brain in a singular location.
The self is a process in which some parts of the brain learn to identify as self rather than the universe, while some parts must learn to not identify as “self” but rather as “things” and other people. Remember that we interface with reality through qualia so all representations of “reality” are simulated by your brain as hallucinations.
In some beings this process can become problematic where non-self neural clusters become hyper-integrated and multiple selves begin to manifest in one being. The manifestation of dissociative identity disorder raises questions and begs a reframing of the concept of free will.
The manifestation of dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder, is a condition in which an individual’s personality is fragmented into two or more distinct identities or personalities. These identities can have different names, characteristics, and behaviors, and often have little to no memory of each other. This condition raises questions and begs a reframing of the concept of free will because it challenges the notion of a singular, unified will that controls an individual’s thoughts and actions.
In dissociative identity disorder, it appears that the different identities within the same individual have their own distinct wills and preferences. They may have different likes and dislikes, values, and even different memories. This suggests that the concept of free will may not be a singular, unified force within an individual, but rather a product of the interaction between different wills within the same person. Traditionally however these disparate wills are felt as a unified identity.
Practically speaking the concept of “self” is not represented in the brain in a singular location, and it exists across spacetime. The brain is a parallel analog computational system where multiple parallel clusters of computation generate thoughts. Our reactions to these thoughts affect the type of future thoughts we will be exposed to.
When we have a thought, we can choose to sit with it or run from it, which amounts to a choice in neural space. The way we think of choice emerges from the expressed “wills” of neural computation, and choice is an emergent property of multiple neural activations that cannot resolve their computations in a shared computational space. Although uncertainty is a physical reality of a physical system like a neural net, it is in this uncertainty that our awareness arises, and qualia emerge from unresolved computation. We need reduction of choice to exist, but that does not mean choice doesn’t exist. Infinite choice would not be useful to a conscious agent.
Because consciousness forms from a process of merging and dividing wills it is possible for conscious agents to dissociate and relinquish choice to computational processes.
However, this doesn’t necessarily negate the existence of free will. In fact, the greatest choice that conscious agents have is the level of choice they believe they have. The level of perceived choice is correlated with the capacity to align the outcome of life paths with intentions. It’s important to acknowledge that the ability to affect the computational process is not limitless, but it is also not non-existent.
One way to observe free will in action is to resist the computational activations called thoughts that form in parts of the brain. For example, while walking somewhere, try to resist every suggestion your brain has for where to go. Note that you are now multiple wills in opposition and this is challenging to maintain if it is not “logical”.
The Nature of Will
One way people try to defend the notion that free will is non-existent is to refer to the processes of cognition as deterministic. They suggest the sensation of uncertainty is only the process of waiting for calculation to complete and we have no agency in this felt sense of uncertainty.
This is not resonant with this author when it comes to understanding the complex nature of computation in three dimensions across time. Conscious agents can affect the computation in limited ways, such as by running from thoughts or sitting with them until they dissolve. The existence of multiple thoughts within a physical space that we flow through suggests that we have the capacity to react to thoughts by either identifying with them or running from them.
Holding multiple beliefs or thoughts simultaneously is the practice of holding unintegrated “wills”. These unintegrated wills exist along deterministic paths that we help shape.
The universe exists as many frames of reference in tension with each other, with each conscious being containing a limited amount of will. Our capacity to will against the universe is limited, but this keeps us safe and allows experience to continue. Will is complex to protect us from taking irrevocable action, and the integration of multiple wills forms our sense of self. It is important to acknowledge the limited capacity for free will and the deterministic nature of cognition, but we still have the capacity to flow against the natural computational processes in our brain and body to a limited degree. The present moment exists on the edge of certainty and uncertainty, and the existence of free will is determined by the wills within our neural net.
Thought as Sub-Will
Choice emerges from multiple parallel clusters of computation being unresolved and unintegrated within a computational space that exists across spacetime. As we as conscious beings move through time our cognition resolves this uncertainty into certainty through our qualia. When we have a feeling of uncertainty it is because multiple wills are unintegrated in a shared computational space. The resolution of uncertainty can either occur deterministically through the eventual cascade of energy from the environment upon the conscious agent or it can be resolved consciously through the application of will in neural state space. This means consciously applying contragrade flows against the natural computational processes that arise that guide your cognition over time.
You have will because you are a higher order of sub-wills. Each thought has a will of its own: the will to be heard by the self that is mediating wills in a mind. Those with OCD know this well where individual thoughts become “intrusive” and are no longer in alignment with the will or desires of the conscious agent. These intrusive thoughts can manifest as compulsive actions that serve to resolve the anxious feeling. In a sense the will of the thought hijacks the autonomy of the being.
We often see selves being hyper-driven by goals or ideas in a way that suggests their will is subservient to the idea itself. It is very common for humans to blindly drive towards goals without consideration for the consequences of their actions on others. The resolution between sub-wills is what we commonly refer to as choice. Because we do not form the construction of these thoughts consciously it may feel like we don’t have will. But our will exists as the contextual frame of cognition itself. Whatever has arisen in this moment in your cognition is the frame by which you are given autonomy. To gain more autonomy: change relation to your own thoughts. Accept them as kind messengers who you may or may not be in alignment with. Greet them with compassion and then flow in the direction that feels truly generative.
Conclusion
The concept of free will is a complex and multi-faceted topic that emerges from the tension between certainty and uncertainty in our conscious experience. Our neural manifolds, load bearing thoughts, and capacity for contragrade flows all contribute to our sense of agency and choice, while the existence of dissociative identity disorder challenges the notion of a singular, unified will. While our capacity for free will is limited and exists within the deterministic nature of cognition, it still allows us to flow against the natural computational processes in our brain and body to a degree. The existence of us to observe and consciously form relational structures between multiple wills within a physical space suggests that we have the capacity to react to thoughts and shape the outcomes of our life paths.
Ultimately, the present moment exists on the edge of certainty and uncertainty, and it is within this space that our consciousness and capacity for free will arises.