Constant Time Theory (CTT)
The question of free will has troubled philosophers for millennia. Do prior causes determine our choices? Are they random? Or is there genuine agency in the world? CTT offers a fresh perspective grounded in the nature of renewal.
In a universe where only the present exists and reality is re-instantiated moment by moment, free will is neither an illusion nor an uncaused spontaneity. It is the capacity of structured systems to influence how the next renewal unfolds.
The Future Is Undetermined Because It Does Not Yet Exist
In a block universe, the future is fixed; all events are laid out in spacetime. But CTT rejects the block universe entirely. Only the present exists. The past has dissolved; the future has not yet been formed.
Thus:
The future is open because there is no future yet.
Nothing is predetermined beyond the stable structure of the present.
Renewal generates the next moment based on what exists now.
Determinism fails because there is no future state to determine. Indeterminism fails because renewal is not random. Instead, the next moment emerges from the present pattern, shaped by structure, law, intention, and action.
How Action Influences Renewal
Every action is a change in the present structure.
Because renewal re-instantiates the current pattern into the next moment, actions affect the next state of reality.
Thus, free will is not mystical.
It is simply this:
Your behaviour changes the structure that renewal will recreate.
A decision alters neural patterns.
An intention reconfigures cognitive structure.
A movement changes the body’s configuration.
All of these become the inputs to the next renewal.
Free will is the ability to shape the pattern that becomes the next moment of the universe.
Laws Guide Possibilities, Actions Select Outcomes
Physical laws do not pre-write the future. They constrain how renewal unfolds, not what must unfold.
Laws define:
the possible range of outcomes,
the behaviours of matter and energy,
the limits within which choices operate.
But within these constraints, structured systems — especially conscious ones — can direct how their own patterns evolve.
You cannot choose to violate physics, but you can choose how you act within physics.
Possibilities are shaped by law.
Outcomes are shaped by action.
Free Will Is Not Independent of Structure
Because the self is a pattern within Θ_S, free will relies on:
the stability of memory,
the coherence of the brain’s structure,
the continuity of identity,
the predictability of physical law.
Your choices arise from the structure that your life has shaped — and in turn shape that structure again.
This creates an elegant loop:
Structure → Choice → Renewed Structure → Choice…
Identity and free will develop together through renewal.
Why Free Will Exists Only in the Present
Free will cannot operate in the past — the past no longer exists. It cannot operate in the future — the future does not yet exist.
Free will operates entirely within the renewing present, where:
intentions form,
decisions arise,
actions occur,
and patterns change.
In CTT, free will is not about controlling a future timeline. It is the capacity to shape the structure that renewal will carry into the next moment.
Free Will Without Dualism
Because identity and consciousness are structured patterns within the temporal field, free will does not require:
an immaterial soul,
a transcendent mind,
a homunculus observing the brain.
Agency arises naturally from the behaviour of complex temporal structures. The brain interprets, evaluates, and acts—and renewal propagates its updated structure.
Free Will as Participation in Renewal
In a renewing universe, consciousness does not merely observe reality. It participates in its unfolding.
Free will is the expression of that participation:
You do not watch reality unfold.
You help determine how it unfolds.
Your choices reshape the structure that renewal will preserve.
You are not a spectator of time. You are a collaborator in the process by which time renews reality.
Free Will as the Creative Power of the Present
Ultimately, CTT sees free will as a creative act:
Not unbounded,
Not supernatural,
Not independent of physical law,
…but genuinely real because the future is not yet formed, and the present is the arena in which structure determines what comes next.
Free will is the ability of a structured system to influence the next instantiation of reality.
You shape the future by shaping the present.
Because the present is all that exists.