The Quantum Foundations of Agency

Consider the fundamental building blocks of all matter in the universe: the elementary particles. When physicists investigate these particles, they find a basic randomness in their location, speed, direction, spin, and more. A minimum level of such randomness is guaranteed by the Uncertainty Principle. Within that zone of randomness, that minimum zone of freedom, the particle can "choose" where to be or how fast to move. However, we rightly find it absurd to ascribe the power of choice to a particle. Instead, we view the particle as constrained, by the Uncertainty Principle, to be random in its movements. And that randomness itself is constrained by the particle's environment. There is no choice in this, except perhaps the particle's "choice" to be itself, which is not a real choice, because it has no other options.

Will, in this view, is the intention to choose among available options. The particle has the will to be itself, a quantum of will, a minimal form of will with no alternative options. Yet that quantum of will builds up along with the organization of elementary particles into atoms, molecules, and material objects of all kinds, including living ones. At some point those innumerable quanta of will coalesce into what we would fully consider to be will: the power to have preferences among sensed options. This depends on the level of complexity of the material object; the first such object in the hierarchy is likely the living cell.

Just as there is a natural law of Conservation of Energy, there is a natural law of Conservation of Will. The will of an atom is the coalesced will of its constituent particles. The will of a molecule is the coalesced will of its constituent atoms. And so on up the chain to macroscopic, everyday objects, including living ones. The will of elementary particles is a minimal quantum of will. Yet, as enormous numbers of particles are joined into an object, their individual quanta of will can merge to create a whole new level of will, with new, emergent features.

To see what coalescence of will means, consider two entangled particles. When one is measured, measurement of the other particle is always correlated to the measurement of the first particle. The entangled particles are no longer separate, regardless of the distance between them. Physicists call this sharing a single quantum state. It is non-separable. In the language of will, we can say that the will of the two particles has coalesced into a single will that they both share.

Any object could be considered to have the will to be itself. At some point in the chain of greater and greater organization and complexity, agency appears. One such point is the living cell. It has the will to be itself and to maintain itself in a changing environment. This requires some sensory mechanisms to receive information about its environment. And, crucially, it also requires the ability to act on that will, to choose among the options open to it, and to make those purpose-driven choices take effect. That power, that ability to act is what we call agency. An elementary particle has will but no agency. A cell has both.

The distinction between will and agency matters. Agency is a property of beings or entities who can act, who can choose according to their own free will. The will of a particle is so constrained by randomness that it has no ability to choose, it has no agency. Agency arises at the level of the biological cell, where the threshold of agency is first crossed. The cell has the will to maintain itself and the ability to actually do so.

Living bodies, such as human ones, are enormously complex material objects, made up of trillions of cells, each of which is made of trillions of molecules. Each cell organizes its molecules into a functional whole, which has agency derived from the coalesced will of all those cooperating building blocks. Cells, in turn, combine into organs and systems within the body, each of which has agency derived from all its cooperating building blocks. In humans, many of those organs and systems operate independently, without our conscious control, but their agency is in service to the whole body, at least in a healthy body. Cancer, for example, can be seen as rogue cells acting without regard for the whole. The parts at each level play their own individual roles in a symphony of cooperation and service to become a greater whole at the next level.

This vast evolutionary hierarchy of will and agency seems to be a self-contained and self-sustained wonder. But at every level, from genesis to apex, from the Big Bang to our spiritualized future, there is the room for, the need for, and the reality of a deeper connection with the Sacred, with the Divine Will, which gives purpose to the Whole. Recognizing the truth of the ancient, panentheistic world view, we see that Divine Agency is in everything everywhere, including material objects. All will is One Will and gives the universe its spiritual dimension. We will delve into these themes in future installments of this series on The Hierarchy of Agency.

For this week, please work to be in contact with the will and agency in everything around you. Through your own will-to-be, you can perceive the kindred will-to-be in everything.

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