Physics of Will

Let me start with a question that has been asked before: What is the most powerful weapon? Here are a few choices to get us started -

• Nuclear Bombs
  
• A well trained Army
  
• An educated Population
  
• An determined leader
  
• A occupied populace with guns
  
• 'Precision Technology
  
• Oil
  
• Computer Networking
  
• Critical Thinking
  
• A hit tale, song, tv show or book
• A new invention
  
• An idea whose time has come
  
• Non violent protest
  
• Peace Love and Understanding
  
• Paper-Scissors-Rock
  

It's not possible to pick a single answer from the above choices, but each of them can best the other under the right conditions. These 'weapons' couple ideas with action to coerce reality towards a state which will never occur in natural world.

Science can predict what is possible in natural processes. These systems are driven by energy flow, and constrained by the physics of our universe. In an important sense, physics does not so much tell us what is possible, but what is impossible. Any configuration of matter in space and time is possible provided that the configuration is not prevented by physics. However not all possibilities are likely to be a instantiated in an evolving universe. For a configuration of the universe to exist it must also conserve energy and matter and it must also be possible to evolve to the new configuration from our current state.

In the 'natural' world, the range of possible future worlds is driven by energy flow. The sun forms from dust, the moon rotates, the tides follow, storms dissipate energy, rocks weather away. Life provides a new vector for energy flow redirecting energy into chemical pathways provided by metabolism. Life's impact in this sense, is limited to what happens as species evolve to exploit natural niches. The future will be an optimized version of the present withing the natural constrains of energy flow.

Will however is a different concept. Our will directs us to construct wholly unnatural worlds. Not evolved, but directed. Will fundamentally changes the equation of what is possible in our space.

Will however takes it's own path according to the opportunities available to it. Memes travel in a space, the space of free will. It is a open question what that space is constrained by. What are the physics of free will?


Will to alter our reality is not the end of this train of thought. We are not limited to constructing spaces which are physically possible to build. We can leap to the possible spaces which are not limited by physics of space, or by the mathematics of numbers. Such a world allows us for instance to travel at warp speed to save an angry race of aliens from an exploding star.

But what of the space limited solely by mathematics, and logic? It must conform to the combinatorial principals embodied in mathematics. Our physical reality is a subset of the possible set of mathematical equations, but not the only one. Our mental and computational spaces are also subsets of mathematical systems. For a fun look at this, check out Max Tegmark's TOE.