The Novelty of Freewill
The idea of absolute autonomy is fairly contemporary and controversial – the faithful assert our actions are preordained by a divine being, while the determinists argue that freewill is an illusion of the mind. As biology and environment undoubtedly play outsized roles in our decision-making, those determinists have a real point, if not the whole picture. In the NU Model, creating a new preference (or modifying an old one) becomes a dance between biochemistry, environment, and intent, but it always comes down to a willingness to endure the required effort.
NUM defines the experience of this effort as the expression of freewill. It’s not that we never act against our biases, just that there’s an inherent cost to doing so, and sometimes, the preference to be changed isn’t ours but our body’s. From attraction to addiction, embodied preference can override our conscious ones. Determining whether to accept or reject such preferences can be a lifelong struggle, after all, our first and most significant relationship is with the vessel we share this universe with. Like no other, this primary relationship might illuminate the framework we truly seek, because when the body wants what it wants, how we respond can tell us everything we need to know about how we relate to Love and Power. Love neither submits to nor dominates over the body – either position derived from the framework of Power, where one suffers and the other thrives. Instead, Love vulnerably participates with intention, building a bridge of sustainable cooperation, where neither suffer and both survive.
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.
Long-held preferences are largely ingrained in our biology, physiology, and psychology, requiring limited effort – the “free energy principle” at work. Increased free energy signals a need for learning, while a decrease 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 must 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.
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. While we might modify our preferences in large or small ways, freewill always requires us to suffer the effort.
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