Abstract knowledge is deterministically governed by the laws of complexity. Knowledge is also all that exists. When we have thoughts or experience something material, these are qualia-experiences of knowledge.
I have described how collective knowledge is the result of all the available knowledge, which comprises all the experiences and thoughts dissociated «units» have in total – plus the inherent knowledge in the Experiencer. The pieces of knowledge interact through complexity mechanisms and form a consensus where the most valid interpretations «win».
But what about free will, then?
The problem is the following, somewhat loosely formulated, picked up from
Wikipedia:
In philosophy and religion, free will is the notion that conscious individuals have the freedom to choose and control their thoughts and actions.
We all experience this freedom all the time. You can choose whether you want to go here or there, think about this or that, open your eyes or close them, put a piece of potato or a slice of tomato in your mouth, in that order – or vice versa.
Of course, you are not free to move mountains (which is not true, as you will see in a moment), but you are free to choose from «selectable options». Exactly what you are free to do and not does not matter. The point is that you, in principle and often in practice, have the ability to make choices, regardless of external circumstances.
The opposite of free will is determinism, where absolutely everything is predetermined. You think you are free, but your choices are, in reality, governed by everything in and around you. You just do not notice it because you don't see all the factors involved and do not understand the mechanisms.
The two philosophical positions are seemingly incompatible.
How does our theory of idealistic emergence solve it?
The answer is that both are valid. We have both free will and are deterministically controlled – at the same time.
How?
The simple answer is that the theory operates with a collective and a private reality.
The universal Experiencer has a collective experience of the whole universe, while at the same time, we dissociated humans have private experiences.
Both of these experiences follow the same laws. You and the Experiencer have the same ability to freely choose their perceptions and experiences, but only within the respective realities.
The Experiencer's reality, the Source knowledge, was created in zero seconds. The whole universe was conceptualised as one coherent, abstract system instantaneously as the idea of the very first «point» was conceived.
From the point onwards, the Experiencer had to use its free will in every subsequent «crossroad of emergence».
«Is this new impression I am now experiencing, this or that or something else?» the Experiencer asks at infinite speed – because this happens in the abstract realm, outside of time.
I have a little
earlier in the chapter said that will is the same as the ability to experience, this vigilance/varhet that the Experiencer has, this need to experience everything that appears, and which leads to an unbroken series of emergent experiences, which in turn needs interpretation.
An interpretation is a choice. The Experiencer makes countless free choices. One choice leads to the next, and so on.
In zero time, the entire universe was thoroughly analysed, interpreted through choice – usually affected by the complexity dynamics – and understood, i.e. converted to knowledge. Every little thing that happened or will happen throughout the universe's life was determined at this moment.
Before the clock started ticking, the Experiencer was done. There was nothing more abstract to ponder. The job was completed; all that remained was to look, to experience the creation.
The Pattern and the complete interpretation of it are deterministic, in fact, «superdeterministic». This means that every particle that – seemingly by chance – «emerges» from the underlying quantum field is known «for all eternity».
Absolutely nothing in the universe is random.
The term super-determinism was coined by the Northern Irish physicist John Stuart Bell to explain all the strange quantum phenomena we observe, including «entanglement», which Einstein called «spooky action at a distance».
Quantum entanglement is about two particles (for example, photons, but also large molecules etc.) that are bound to each other so that one immediately «knows» what the other is doing. This occurs even if they are so far from each other that all communication should be impossible – since communication can not happen faster than the speed of light and the distance is too great.
In an interview with the BBC in the 1980s, Bell stated the following:
There is a way to escape the inference of superluminal speeds and spooky action at a distance. But it involves absolute determinism in the universe, the complete absence of free will. Suppose the world is super-deterministic, with not just inanimate nature running on behind-the-scenes clockwork, but with our behaviour, including our belief that we are free to choose to do one experiment rather than another, absolutely predetermined, including the «decision» by the experimenter to carry out one set of measurements rather than another, the difficulty disappears. There is no need for a faster than light signal to tell particle A what measurement has been carried out on particle B, because the universe, including particle A, already «knows» what that measurement, and its outcome, will be.
Our theory of idealistic emergence says precisely the same; that all knowledge in the whole universe is determined once and for all and is instantly available.
So then we have no free will, right?
We actually have it, but not concerning the initial interpretation of the Pattern, which happened in the inflation phase of The Big Bang as physics puts it, i.e. before time began to be experienced as qualia.
As soon as time begins to run, we are in a completely different situation. Then myriads of experiences of the eternal, deterministic knowledge start to appear.
The experiences come from everything imagined in the Pattern, i.e. molecules, rocks, plants, animals, people – everything – because the Experiencer must experience how it feels to be all these notions.
These experiences completely take off. They expand the original notions, add something, increase the amount and accuracy of the Collective knowledge. The contributions come from your Ego and the «Egos» of everything else.
Inanimate objects don't have brains and consequently don't experience the world as we do. They are not sentient in a way we can understand. But the Experiencer must still experience what it's like to be these things. It simply must because it's the only thing it does.
When you dissociate and begin to believe that you are «you», you are still, in reality, the Experiencer who has the ability and need to expand through emergence, as long as there is something new to experience.
And it is; there is always something new to experience.
I'm talking now about your private experiences, your thoughts, your Ego-spin.
Your delusions.
As I have explained, these private notions are as accessible in the one universal Experiencer as the original, collective notions. Your personal notions thus compete with the collective ones. The most credible wins, to put it simply.
A more correct formulation is that your, others' and the existing ideas in the Experiencer mix in the complex, dynamic game, which all take place in the same, closed system – the same Thought.
New knowledge adds to the existing, and the mechanisms of complexity determine, as always, the subsequent course of the universe.
Imagine that there are light clouds in the sky. Then you find out that you, with your free will, will send up a fireworks rocket that leaves a white cloud of smoke. It visually mixes with the other clouds and changes their shape slightly. The further development of the clouds has now slightly changed – compared to the original dynamics, the deterministic «plan».
Another picture: You are a puppet attached to trillions of threads, all of which move as the puppeteer, the Experiencer, decides. At the same time, you have a certain freedom to move as you wish, where you hang and dangle.
Your movements obviously affect the operator's further movements, but only slightly. Your feedback, the knowledge you create through your actions and thoughts, affects the collective knowledge – a little. Still, this tiny deviation can turn out to be like a butterfly waving its wings.
For you, the doll, it is experienced as if you have total freedom – within what was already determined; the position in the room, the time, the surroundings.
Again, you are in a mixed experience.
Free will and determinism are not opposites; they complement each other and form a dynamic whole. The starting point is deterministic, the Pattern, which is then continuously modified through dissociated, and thus distorted, experiences of the same Pattern.
And remember, everything happens in the abstract. The struggle for definition is there, not in the material – which is the perceived result.
