COMPUTATIONAL IRREDUCIBILITY AND THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF FREE WILL

The paper argues that computational irreducibility—the inability to shortcut certain processes—provides a framework for understanding free will that avoids both determinism and indeterminism. It suggests that conscious agents experience themselves as making choices because the computational processes underlying decision-making cannot be predicted or simulated in advance, even in principle. This creates a phenomenological sense of agency and openness that is compatible with underlying physical laws. The argument draws on concepts from Stephen Wolfram's computational universe to reframe the free will debate, proposing that irreducible computation in neural systems gives rise to the lived experience of freedom without requiring metaphysical libertarianism.

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Abstract

COMPUTATIONAL IRREDUCIBILITY AND THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF FREE WILL