A newborn comes into the world unable to see clearly, move with intent, or make sense of its surroundings. But over time, it grows into an adult who can handle the incredible complexity of life.
The difference isn’t the arrival of some mysterious “conscious decider,” but the gradual development of a vast, interconnected system of responsiveness.
The Fundamental Principle
Living systems aren’t just about complexity—they’re all about constant, multi-layered responsiveness to change. Every part of the body is sensing, reacting, and adapting, not in a central or step-by-step way, but everywhere, all at once.
The Architecture of Responsiveness
- Cells. Each cell receives signals, changes state, sends signals. There is neither awareness nor intent. It is just input + state yields output
- Tissues and organs. Groups of cells coordinate responses, regulate local conditions, and repair damage.
My wife once broke a bone in her foot while on vacation. It hurt immediately but eased within an hour. By the next day it had swollen and it hurt.
She thought it was a sprain. The third day it only hurt if she tried to walk on it.
When sitting, it didn’t hurt. Finally, we went to the doctor, who told her it was broken.
He set it, and it while in the cast it no longer hurt.
Parts of her “knew” it was broken well before her brain told her. At various times, various parts of her were treating the injury.
Millions of “decisions” were being made each second, by millions of cells based on signals they all were receiving.
The inflammation, swelling, and sensitivity all began before any diagnosis. Her body responded before her brain “knew.”
What actually happened in her foot
Immediate phase (minutes–hours)
Mechanical damage. Local cells release signals (ATP, prostaglandins, etc.)
Nociceptors fire which causes the sensation of pain. Then shortly thereafter there was:
Adaptation + central dampening can make pain ease after the initial spike
This was not “recognition,” but local signaling + system-level gain control
The next day (inflammation)
Her immune response ramped up. Increased fluid led to swelling.
Cytokines caused increased sensitivity
Tissues became easier to trigger (hyperalgesia)
The system shifted the odds toward protection
Day three (use-dependent pain)
Loading the bone activation stressed her tissue, causing pain
While at rest, there were fewer triggers, thus little or no pain
The same injury yielded, different conditions and different outputs
After casting
Immobilization reduced mechanical stress, and stabilization lowered nociceptor firing
Her brain and spinal circuits downshifted the signal gain
The reduced input altered the signal gain, resulting in less pain
Local tissues generated signals consistent with damage, and the system responded to those signals before any explicit label (‘broken’) was formed. The label “broken” is a brain-level categorization. The response (inflammation, protection) is distributed at a lower level, but still it affects brain-level response.
That is, it changes the brain’s ability to think.
We all recognize that decisions made while in pain differ from decisions made in comfort. Decisions made under stress are different from those made in calm. Rushed decisions differ from contemplated decisions.
Every shift in state—happiness, sadness, pain, comfort, curiosity, fear, desire, urgency—alters the system making the response. Change the state, and you change the outcome, and we have scant knowledge or control over these states and emotions,
Every organ in the body is continuously changing the system’s state. And every change in state changes the outcome. For example:
Kidneys secretly regulate fluid balance, electrolytes (sodium, potassium), and blood pressure. Imbalances can cause fatigue, confusion, and irritability each of which can affect thinking, belief and action. Change the chemistry and you change the response.
The Liver secretly controls glucose levels, detoxification, and metabolic balance. Low glucose alone can produce poor judgment, impulsivity, mood shifts, all of which affect decision-making and desire.
The Thyroid regulates metabolic rate. Too much or too little causes anxiety or sluggishness, restlessness or depression. The same person in a different thyroid state will show different personalities.
The Skin is not just a barrier. It measures and regulates temperature, touch, pain, pleasure, and irritation. It directs attention, and tolerance, all of which alter behavior.
The Immune System releases cytokines which affect fatigue/energy and motivation. Not “feeling well” changes your mind about future actions.
Gut & Distributed Receptors produces signaling molecules that communicate via nerves and blood. This influences mood and motivation. Receptors throughout the body detect internal conditions and feed continuous updates into the system.
The nervous system provides fast, precise, body-wide signaling. The endocrine system (blood) provides slow, body-wide modulation. The immune system (lymph) provides body-wide adaptive regulation. And all affect your thinking, belief and action without your overt knowledge.
The brain does not originate behavior. It integrates signals, models patterns, biases outcomes, and gates actions. It is not the source of decision. It is the highest-level integrator of distributed responsiveness.
Consider something so simple as our “Taste buds” (more precisely, taste receptors), which have been found in several places around the body, outside the mouth, including:
In the Gut (stomach and intestines) where they detect sugars, amino acids, bitter compounds. They trigger hormone release (like insulin-related signals), digestion changes, and appetite regulation
In your Airways where they detect bitter compounds (often toxins or bacteria), and trigger coughing, changes in breathing, and immune responses
In your Pancreas where these sugar-sensing receptors influence insulin release and direct metabolic regulation
In your Brain where they seem to be involved involved in chemical signaling and some form of internal regulation
In the Testes, where they likely are involved in cell signaling and developmental processes
The so-called “taste buds are general-purpose chemical detectors reused throughout the body, silently affecting your actions and beliefs.
The key point is that none of these organs think, decide, believe, or choose, but all of them continuously shift the conditions under which outcomes emerge.
How then can we claim to control our decision-making? If every “decision” depends on internal chemistry, physical condition, prior experience, and current environment, the vast majority happening “behind the scenes,” so to speak, then what, exactly, is making the decisions we mistakenly call “free will”?
Answer: There is no fixed chooser. There only is only a body-wide changing system, producing different results under different conditions. There is no “free will” in the brain. It is an illusion.
What is the Purpose of the “Free Will” Illusion?
What we call free will can be seen as an internal model telling us, “this action comes from me.” It’s not some mysterious, metaphysical force, but rather a label we place on top of the underlying processes.
Why have that model at all? Not for truth—for function. The belief in free will, a belief that may be shared by many animals, has certain survival advantages:
1) Action coordination. To act quickly, the system needs a simple handle: “I can do this.” Without that, hesitation increases
competing signals don’t resolve efficiently. So, the system uses a shortcut. Ownership produces faster commitment
2) Learning and credit assignment. To learn, the system must link action to an outcome. That requires something like, “I did that.” Otherwise, there would be no reinforcement or adjustment. The “I did” is a bookkeeping tool.
3) Social interaction. In social species, Ownership creates responsibility, prediction of others, and coordination, all of which rely on agents who appear to choose (even if, underneath, it’s all distributed processes).
4) Compression. The underlying system is insanely complex, with thousands of decisions being made each second. Instead, the illusion of “free will” compresses the system into a single narrative: “I decided.”
(It’s similar to the reason that vision compresses wavelengths into shades of “red,” and compresses a series of movie frames into “movement”)
Even the lowly housefly acts as if it “wants to” move its wings, when the true act of flying is far more complex than a fly’s tiny brain could accomplish
In short, the compelling illusion of “free will” serves a purpose. It acts as a functional model that streamlines scattered processes into a single control point, making action, learning, and social coordination possible.
We don’t have free will. We have a system that works better by believing it does.
IN SUMMARY
You are your history, the collection of all the internal and external stimuli you’ve ever experienced, along with every atom that makes up what you are.
There’s no separate “self” apart from your body and experiences that’s running the show. Your brain takes in signals, weaves them together, and builds a story. It tags events with labels like “pain,” “injury,” or “decision,” making it feel like there’s a central observer. But in reality, it’s just the system reporting on itself.
We do not think with our brains alone. We respond with our entire bodies. The brain does not command, decide, or know. It participates in the process.
Living systems are made up of interconnected units that respond and adapt across many levels. What we think of as thinking or decision-making emerges from these complex networks, shaped by the constant interplay between cells, organs, and signaling systems.
We don’t think first and then act; we react, and we label that reaction as “thinking.” What we call “consciousness” and “free will” is really just Stimulus —> Response —> Response —> …, and so on.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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