From a scientific point of view, freewill is a highly controversial concept – the effects of biology and environment place its very existence in doubt. From a religious perspective, freewill is a foundational cornerstone – one cannot be judged by God unless one is free to choose “right” from “wrong.” While a libertarian freewill suggests every choice is the result of pure, conscious intent, determinism flips this on its head, suggesting that consciousness becomes a justification after the fact for one’s behavior, turning, “I think, and therefore I am,” into, “I am, and therefore I think.” As an inescapable chain of cause-and-effect, behavior is determined by the universe – its physics, chemistry, and biology. In a scientific sense, life happens, and we’re all just along for the ride. In a religious sense, do what’s right or pay the price. In a Novel Universe sense, freewill is the friction of life – the cost of change.
The idea of absolute autonomy is fairly contemporary – the average person across the planet throughout history would likely have had some divine model to account for their actions (or inaction). America’s Puritan individualism has since convinced most, that most often, they’re making conscious choices every day about everything. However, when we dig into the science, neither ancient spiritual forces nor contemporary bootstraps make for a convincing argument, as biology and environment undoubtedly play outsized roles in our decision making, and those determinists have a real point, if not the whole picture. It all comes down to desire, and creating a new preference (or modifying an old one) is a dance between biology, environment, and intent. If a bias is useful, it sticks around, if not, it fades away. Of course, this doesn’t mean we never act against our biases, just that it’s hard to do so.
Long-held preferences are largely ingrained in our biology, physiology, and psychology, requiring limited effort – the “free energy principle.” Higher free energy signals a need for learning, while lower free energy confirms the effectiveness of what we’ve learned – models that fit reality predict reality, thus streamlining energy use. When the model doesn’t fit, we’re surprised, and forced to deal with unexpected circumstances. Like cats racing from the corral, our mental energy breaks free, and, as we attempt to fit our old model to a new reality, we’ve gotta spend the effort to reign in all those surprising deviations – a situation that can feel like herding cats, but also, be a source of unparalleled joy, depending on whether we prefer the surprise or not.
Arguably, the brain’s entire job is to lower the body’s surprise (free energy) through allostasis (predictive modeling). Homeostasis reacts to incoming signals in an attempt to balance things – a furnace maintaining a home’s temperature. On the other hand, allostasis predicts reality – blood pressure rises before we stand, otherwise we’d faint to the floor, never able to rise to our feet. To refine a predictive model, allostasis uses “prediction error” – the difference between actual and predicted sensation. We try and fail, at least to some degree, but it is that failure (prediction error) we require to adjust the settings and fine-tune the model. We do not learn, so much, from getting things right, as the degree to which we get them wrong – how surprising something is, aka, its novelty.
Freewill is not a switch but a spectrum, ranging from a minor tweak to an outright reshaping of one’s entire point of view. One might delay an action, say, put that cigarette off a few minutes, or change course entirely and go cold turkey. Either way, those underlying preferences might only be altered with increased effort, as following in one’s grooves is easier than plowing new pathways.
The NU Model defines suffering as the inability to express preference, and effort as varying degrees of self-inflicted suffering, spanning from displeasing sensation to determined grit to downright agony. The NU Model further defines freewill as the emotional motion of effort, from an intentional suspension to a complete reordering of preference. Mere hesitation would be the least alteration, while the greatest, a wholesale change of framework (Love or Power). While we might modify our preferences in large or small ways, freewill always requires us to suffer the effort.
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