Weaver D.R. Weinbaum | Vrije Universiteit Brussel (original) (raw)

Papers by Weaver D.R. Weinbaum

In this conversation, Weaver D.R. Weinbaum and Marta Lenartowicz discuss the paradigmatic limits ... more In this conversation, Weaver D.R. Weinbaum and Marta Lenartowicz discuss the paradigmatic limits to their argument that social systems are cognitive agents on their own. Integrating Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems with Francisco Varela's enactive theory of cognition and Gilbert Simondon's theory of individuation Lenartowicz and Weinbaum have argued that the Luhmannian concept of social systems 'observing' their environment can be taken non-metaphorically albeit still in an abstract manner. While presenting this theory they were asked what would the 'physical substrate' of such cognitive agencies be. In their 'Thinking Studio' conversation held at the School of Thinking VUB they discuss what they understand as a profound presupposition carried by the above question: to be validly addressed by science, all phenomena must first be shown to be grounded in relation to a single fundamental layer of reality. Finding this paradigmatic presupposition problematic in relation to social systems, Weinbaum and Lenartowicz seek to demonstrate the case that different phenomenal domains may have different grounds which are not further reducible without losing their significance as a ground. The authors problematize the concept of ground, expose the difficulties it poses, and discursively construct an alternative conceptual framework in relation to which the initial question asked could be answered. Weinbaum and Lenartowicz propose a new understanding of the concept of ground which is relative rather than absolute and itself individuating rather than merely forming an a priori context for individuation. Specifically, they conclude that there is little point to ground social systems in a physical substrate. The notion of hierarchical construction 'from the ground up' is revised to accommodate individuating factors that operate 'top down' as well as 'across' diverse strata without a clear hierarchical distinction. The major consequence is proposing an alternative to the concept of ground as it is commonly applied, this in preparation for a more open-ended and less dogmatic scientific paradigm. The main line of argument analyses the concept of ground and asserts that understanding ground depends on the domain in which problems are described. Furthermore, the ground, far from being absolute is a product of individuation, that is a constructive process. This short volume contains a single 'Thinking Studio' conversation organised by the School of Thinking VUB at the Free University of Brussels.

We argue the case that human social systems and social organizations in particular are concrete,... more We argue the case that human social systems and social organizations in particular are concrete, non-metaphorical, cognitive agents operating in their own self-constructed environments. Our point of departure is Luhmann’s (1996) theory of social systems as self-organizing systems of communications. Integrating the Luhmannian theory with the enactive theory of cognition (Di Paolo et al., 2010) and Simondon’s (1992) theory of individuation, results in a novel view of social systems as complex, individuating sequences of communicative interactions that together constitute distributed yet distinct cognitive agencies. The relations of such agencies with their respective environments (involving other agencies of the same construction) is further clarified by discussing both the Hayek-Hebb (Hebb; 1949; Hayek, 1952; Edelman, 1987) and the perturbation-compensation (Maturana & Varela, 1980) perspectives on systems adaptiveness as each reveals different and complementary facets of the operat...

Foundations of Science, 2014

This paper introduces Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming in a system theoretic framework and propos... more This paper introduces Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming in a system theoretic framework and proposes an alternative ontological foundation to the study of systems and complex systems in particular. A brief critique of systems theory and the difficulties apparent in it is proposed as an introduction to the discussion. Following is an overview aimed at providing access to the ‘big picture’ of Deleuze’s revolutionary philosophical system with emphasis on a system theoretic approach and terminology. The major concepts of Deleuze’s ontology—difference, virtuality, multiplicity, assemblages, quasi-causation, becoming (individuation), intensity and progressive determination are introduced and discussed. Deleuze’s work is a radical departure from the dogma of western philosophy that guides the foundations of science and systems theory. It replaces identity with difference and being with becoming; in other words, it provides systems theory with an ontological ground based on change, heterogeneity and the inexhaustible novelty-producing process that underlies all phenomena. The conceptual tools made available by this philosophy seem to capture the fundamental aspects of complexity and complex systems much better than the current conceptual system that is based on static transcendent ontological entities.

In a world that challenges us with ever more complex problems, it is the quality of our thinking ... more In a world that challenges us with ever more complex problems, it is the quality of our thinking that is a critical game-changer in the quest of creating a sane and abundant future. As individuals, organisations, societies, and cultures, we need to foster thinking that proves to be more insightful and farsighted than anything one would ordinarily expect - making it our new norm. We must learn how to mobilise and apply intelligence that is extraordinary - one that continuously exceeds its own limits. The new VUB School of Thinking is an experimental program with the mission of challenging us all to achieve just that. Deploying an innovative combination of mobilization methods, the program sets out to cultivate the cognitive strategies, practices, and habits that are the marks of exceptional thinkers. This book invites the public to join the School of Thinking students in their endeavour. The reader will find here a variety of interdisciplinary research articles and discussions that took place in the school. It's a rare peek into a lively academic project committed to taking seriously the 'Sapiens' in 'Homo Sapiens'.

Springer Proceedings in Complexity, 2013

Artificial General Intelligence is a field of research aiming to distill the principles of intell... more Artificial General Intelligence is a field of research aiming to distill the principles of intelligence that operate independently of a specific problem domain or a predefined context and utilize these principles in order to synthesize systems capable of performing any intellectual task a human being is capable of and eventually go beyond that. While "narrow" artificial intelligence which focuses on solving specific problems such as speech recognition, text comprehension, visual pattern recognition, robotic motion, etc. has shown quite a few impressive breakthroughs lately, understanding general intelligence remains elusive. In the paper we offer a novel theoretical approach to understanding general intelligence. We start with a brief introduction of the current conceptual approach. Our critique exposes a number of serious limitations that are traced back to the ontological roots of the concept of intelligence. We then propose a paradigm shift from intelligence perceived as a competence of individual agents defined in relation to an a priori given problem domain or a goal, to intelligence perceived as a formative process of self-organization by which intelligent agents are individuated. We call this process open-ended intelligence. Open-ended intelligence is developed as an abstraction of the process of cognitive development so its application can be extended to general agents and systems. We introduce and discuss three facets of the idea: the philosophical concept of individuation, sense-making and the individuation of general cognitive agents. We further show how open-ended intelligence can be framed in terms of a distributed, self-organizing network of interacting elements and how such process is scalable. The framework highlights an important relation between coordination and intelligence and a new understanding of values. We conclude with a number of questions for future research.

... Vijay A. Saraswat , Kenneth Kahn , David Weinbaum, Detecting stable properties of networks in... more ... Vijay A. Saraswat , Kenneth Kahn , David Weinbaum, Detecting stable properties of networks in concurrent logic programming languages, Proceedings of the seventh annual ACM Symposium on Principles of distributed computing, p.210-222, August 15-17, 1988, Toronto ...

Foundations of Science, Sep 9, 2014

This paper introduces Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming in system theoretic terms and proposes an ... more This paper introduces Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming in system theoretic terms and proposes an alternative ontological foundation to the study of systems and complex systems in particular. A brief critique of system theory and difficulties apparent in it is proposed as an initial motivation to the discussion. Following is an overview aiming to provide an access to the ‘big picture’ of Deleuze’s revolutionary philosophical system with emphasize on a system theoretic approach and terminology. The major concepts of Deleuze’s ontology - difference, virtuality, multiplicity, assemblages, quasi-causation, becoming (individuation), intensity and progressive determination are introduced and discussed in some length. Deleuze’s work is a radical departure from the dogma of western philosophy that also guides the foundations of science and system theory. It replaces identity with difference and being with becoming, in other words, it provides system theory with an ontological ground based on...

The Noetic perspective (from Greek: noetikosmental; nousmind) identifies the [human] mind as the ... more The Noetic perspective (from Greek: noetikosmental; nousmind) identifies the [human] mind as the nexus of the future evolution of humanity. At present, human evolution is a mental process rather than biological or technological process. The Noetic model describes mind as a relation generating complex system arising as a product of biological evolution and manifesting certain defining characteristics such as systemic closure, self reference, plasticity, etc. This model aims to integrate a systemic view with the mental constructs of the subjective plane. According to the Noetic model, human identity is a dynamic constructive process that brings forth the human observer as the subject of its perceptive and mental states. This process is identified as mind. Images and narratives are the elements encompassing the experiential and mental aspects of the identity process as they appear to the human observer. The idea of mind as the theater of evolutionary processes is further explored: Mind...

ECCO Working Paper, 2018 (v.2), 2018

We propose a venture into an existential opportunity for establishing a world ‘good enough’ for h... more We propose a venture into an existential opportunity for establishing a world ‘good enough’ for humans to live in. Defining an existential opportunity as the converse of an existential risk —i.e. a development that promises to dramatically improve the future of humanity— we argue that one such opportunity is available and should be explored now. The opportunity resides in the moment of transition of the Internet — from mediating information to mediating governance. The Internet of tomorrow will mediate the execution of contracts, transactions, public interventions, and all other change-establishing events more reliably and more synergistically than any other technology or institution. It will become a distributed, synthetically intelligent agent in itself. This transition must not be just observed, or exploited instrumentally: it must be ventured into and seized on behalf of entire humanity. We propose that the new coordinating layer of the Internet should be arranged such that it w...

The sociotechnological system is a system constituted of human individuals and their artifacts: t... more The sociotechnological system is a system constituted of human individuals and their artifacts: technological artifacts, institutions, conceptual and representational systems, worldviews, knowledge systems, culture and the whole biosphere as a volutionary niche. In our view the sociotechnological system as a super-organism is shaped and determined both by the characteristics of the agents involved and the characteristics emergent in their interactions at multiple scales. Our approach to sociotechnological dynamics will maintain a balance between perspectives: the individual and the collective. Accordingly, we analyze dynamics of the Web as a sociotechnological system made of people, computers and digital artifacts (Web pages, databases, search engines, etc.). Making sense of the sociotechnological system while being part of it, is also a constant interplay between pragmatic and value based approaches. The first is focusing on the actualities of the system while the second highlights the observer's projections. In our attempt to model sociotechnological dynamics and envision its future, we take special care to make explicit our values as part of the analysis. In sociotechnological systems with a high degree of reflexivity (coupling between the perception of the system and the system's behavior), highlighting values is of critical importance. In this essay, we choose to see the future evolution of the web as facilitating a basic value, that is, continuous open-ended intelligence expansion. By that we mean that we see intelligence expansion as the determinant of the 'greater good' and 'well being' of both of individuals and collectives at all scales. Our working definition of intelligence here is the progressive process of sense-making of self, other, environment and universe. Intelligence expansion, therefore, means an increasing ability of sense-making.

The human cognitive system is a remarkable exemplar of a general intelligent system whose compete... more The human cognitive system is a remarkable exemplar of a general intelligent system whose competence is not confined to a specific problem domain. Evidently, general cognitive competences are a product of a prolonged and complex process of cognitive development. Therefore, the process of cognitive development is a primary key to understanding the emergence of intelligent behavior. This paper develops the theoretical foundations for a model that generalizes the process of cognitive development. The model aims to provide a realistic scheme for the synthesis of scalable cognitive systems with an open-ended range of capabilities. Major concepts and theories of human cognitive development are introduced and briefly explored focusing on the enactive approach to cognition and the concept of sense-making. The initial scheme of human cognitive development is then generalized by introducing the philosophy of individuation and the abstract mechanism of transduction. The theory of individuation provides the ground for the necessary paradigmatic shift from cognitive systems as given products to cognitive development as a formative process of self-organization. Next, the conceptual model is specified as a scalable scheme of networks of agents. The mechanisms of individuation are formulated in context independent information theoretical terms. Finally, the paper discusses two concrete aspects of the generative model -- mechanisms of transduction and value modulating systems. These are topics of further research towards a computationally realizable model.

Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 2016

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;It is argued that the prospect of the emergence of a Global... more &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;It is argued that the prospect of the emergence of a Global Brain as a planetary level Communication Command and Control system capable of demonstrating general intelligence depends on realizing a scalable cognitive process. We have described an agent based framework for scalable cognition by first defining cognition as the combination of two selective processes: Selection for relevance (attention mechanism) and selection for effective action. These selective processes are context sensitive and operate on events that mediate differences in the state of the agent’s environment. The structure of cognitive agents and the structure of the environment co-‐define each other and therefore co-‐emerge. The framework suggests that the up-‐scaling of the cognitive process is realized by the agent’s tendency to form cooperative coalitions. Every such coalition is in fact a super agent constructed from simpler constituent agents operating together in a collective cognitive process. Coalitions are formed and dismantled according to their relevance. The relevance of a coalition or a super agent is derived from: 1. the existence of sufficient triggers from the environment to which they respond effectively according to a context sensitive set of criteria. 2. The extent by which they influence other coalitions and participate in higher level coalitions. 3. A Decay factor that basically represents entropy and the tendency of ordered systems to disintegrate in time. The concept of challenge is introduced into the framework as synonymous with context sensitive items of relevance that are selected by the attention mechanism. These items are analogous to the items ‘brought to consciousness‘ in Baars’ global workspace theory. As attention is spreading among agents, we say that challenges propagate within the population of agents along paths of influence that together form a network of influence. The propagation of challenges is analogous, at least in some aspects, to the monetary flow within a market system. Such flow abstracts the local context sensitive transactions and highlights instead the flow of the currency of attention. This is based on the understanding that the currency of attention ‘buys’ the resources necessary for effective action. Effective action in turn gains influence that further draws attention. This is quite different from the flow of information among agents because we hypothesize that what drives the formation of higher cognitive structures is the spreading of challenges and not only the spreading of information. Of particular interest in this sense is that aspect of propagation we called vertical propagation of challenges. Vertical propagation is associated with the formation of higher cognitive functions and takes place as challenges at a certain level are combined through the interactions of agents to a challenge of a higher level. The final part of the paper explores general considerations and problems of modeling the framework and outlining initial directions for implementation. The approach is modular and divides the frameworkinto a few modeling problems: Modeling agents (the generic agent), modeling challenges and events (modeling the environment), modeling topological aspects and finally modeling coalitions and their formation which is the most critical aspect of the framework. All these are of course subjects to further research. The ultimate test of implementing the framework is the demonstration of general intelligence i.e. the spontaneous discovery of problems in the environment and the emergence of specific problem solving capabilities without the guidance of a designer. This is of course a very hard problem to begin with but this paper makes some conceptual headway in figuring how to get there.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;

Our envisioning of the brink of Singularity begins with redefining Singularity as an historical p... more Our envisioning of the brink of Singularity begins with redefining Singularity as an historical process, rather than an event. It is the process of continuous intelligence expansion since the beginning of human civilization. We emphasize the value and significance of the continuity of this process rather than the intermediate stages through which it passes. By that, we position the brink of Singularity situation within the continuum of human evolution, the evolution of life and evolution as a universal process. We raise the question of what would be the desired configuration and dynamics of the sociotechnological system able to facilitate open-ended intelligence expansion. A World of Views is our vision of
such a configuration. We then argue why a World of Views is likely to be the only feasible configuration capable of sustaining the Singularity as a process of intelligence escaping its biological constraints and beyond. Finally, we propose
distributed social governance as a bootstrapping mechanism for a World of Views and link it with the current momentum of the sociotechnological system. At the basis of the evolutionary shift humanity is undergoing on the brink of Singularity is the progressive process of entering into symbiotic relationships
with its technological artifacts. This symbiotic convergence deemphasizes the anthropocentric perspective in regard to the future. Furthermore, the past consensual understanding of what constitutes our humanity cannot serve us effectively under circumstances of accelerating sociotechnological change. From the social perspective, the most important are those artifacts that augment social interaction of intelligent agents as currently the Internet primarily is. Such artifacts do not only change us individually, they transform the very fabric of human civilization. We take therefore a systemic approach, first by focusing our discussion on the dynamics of the sociotechnological organism humanity is becoming, and second by introducing worldviews as the relevant units of
evolution of sociotechnological organisms.
Our analysis of the sociotechnological evolution shows that circumstances of hyper-connectivity, reflexivity and acceleration beyond their many obvious benefits expose the sociotechnological system to fragility that will only increase in
the near future and may lead to some catastrophic though yet unpredictable consequences. In order to counter this systemic effect we apply the concept of antifragility - the property of systems that thrive on volatility and uncertainty -
and conclude that antifragility is necessary to secure the sociotechnological system from devastating catastrophic events. To that end, we need a paradigm shift towards what we call a World of Views. A World of Views is a nested, self-
organizing structure, where worldviews occupy the highest level but in themselves are modular, open and diverse. Diversity, modularity and openness are the essential properties that together characterize an adaptive structure
capable of containing failures while propagating successes within the larger system, thus realizing antifragility at multiple scales. An antifragile sociotechnological system, however, is much more than just dodging existential risks. We argue that the benefits of technology will gradually transport humanity into an age of abundance, which will in turn have profound
effects on sociotechnological evolution. This self-amplifying reciprocity will result in decline and even disappearance of evolutionary pressures that arise from limited resources and survival needs. We propose that abundance will catalyze
active expressions of freedom that will become novel evolutionary selectors. In our vision of the future, the expression of freedom rather than survival is the ultimate driving force of evolution. We conclude that the World of Views is a catalyst of future abundance, which in turn reinforces the dynamics intrinsic of the World of Views. This positive feedback mechanism, once set in motion, will bootstrap the sociotechnological system towards a World of Views.
Finally, we introduce in broad lines a distributed social governance system that we foresee as instrumental to the development of a World of Views. Distributed social governance system is the implementation of a World of Views
on the social plane. It is a radical extension of a democratic governance regime in a sense of abolishing the single unified paradigm, in favor of continuous construction and dismantling of experimental models that partially work. It is clear to us that global education systems are the essential key towards distributed social governance, teaching us to live in a world without survival constraints, giving up the idea of a single value system, constructing individual and shared realities and constantly innovating on them.

It is argued that the prospect of the emergence of a Global Brain as a planetary level Communicat... more It is argued that the prospect of the emergence of a Global Brain as a planetary level Communication Command and Control system capable of demonstrating general intelligence depends on realizing a scalable cognitive process. We have described an agent based framework for scalable cognition by first defining cognition as the combination of two selective processes: Selection for relevance (attention mechanism) and selection for effective action. These selective processes are context sensitive and operate on events that mediate differences in the state of the agent’s environment. The structure of cognitive agents and the structure of the environment co-‐define each other and therefore co-‐emerge.
The framework suggests that the up-‐scaling of the cognitive process is realized by the agent’s tendency to form cooperative coalitions. Every such coalition is in fact a super agent constructed from simpler constituent agents operating together in a collective cognitive process. Coalitions are formed and dismantled according to their relevance. The relevance of a coalition or a super agent is derived from: 1. the existence of sufficient triggers from the environment to which they respond effectively according to a context sensitive set of criteria. 2. The extent by which they influence other coalitions and participate in higher level coalitions. 3. A Decay factor that basically represents entropy and the tendency of ordered systems to disintegrate in time.
The concept of challenge is introduced into the framework as synonymous with context sensitive items of relevance that are selected by the attention mechanism. These items are analogous to the items ‘brought to consciousness‘ in Baars’ global workspace theory. As attention is spreading among agents, we say that challenges propagate within the population of agents along paths of influence that together form a network of influence. The propagation of challenges is analogous, at least in some aspects, to the monetary flow within a market system. Such flow abstracts the local context sensitive transactions and highlights instead the flow of the currency of attention. This is based on the understanding that the currency of attention ‘buys’ the resources necessary for effective action. Effective action in turn gains influence that further draws attention. This is quite different from the flow of information among agents because we hypothesize that what drives the formation of higher cognitive structures is the spreading of challenges and not only the spreading of information. Of particular interest in this sense is that aspect of propagation we called vertical propagation of challenges. Vertical propagation is associated with the formation of higher cognitive functions and takes place as challenges at a certain level are combined through the interactions of agents to a challenge of a higher level.
The final part of the paper explores general considerations and problems of modeling the framework and outlining initial directions for implementation. The approach is modular and divides the frameworkinto a few modeling problems: Modeling agents (the generic agent), modeling challenges and events (modeling the environment), modeling topological aspects and finally modeling coalitions and their formation which is the most critical aspect of the framework. All these are of course subjects to further research.
The ultimate test of implementing the framework is the demonstration of general intelligence i.e. the spontaneous discovery of problems in the environment and the emergence of specific problem solving capabilities without the guidance of a designer. This is of course a very hard problem to begin with but this paper makes some conceptual headway in figuring how to get there.

Foundations of Science, 2014

Springer Proceedings in Complexity, 2013

Foundations of Science, Sep 9, 2014

ECCO Working Paper, 2018 (v.2), 2018

Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 2016

Recent experiments have perfectly verified the fact that quantum correlations between two entan... more Recent experiments have perfectly verified the fact that quantum correlations between two entangled particles are stronger than any classical, local pre-quantum worldview allows. This is famously called the EPR paradox ﬁrst conceived as a thought experiment and decades later realized in the lab. We discuss in depth the nature of the paradox and show that the problematics it presents is ﬁrst and foremost epistemological. After brieﬂy exploring resolutions to the paradox that after many decades of discourse still remain controversial, we argue that the paradox is rooted in the failure of our current metaphysical scheme, being the foundation of our knowledge, to accommodate and cohere our knowledge of the phenomena of entanglement. We then develop and make the case for a novel and more fundamental resolution of the paradox by changing the underlying metaphysical foundation from one based on individuals to a one based on individuation. We discuss in detail how in the light of this new scheme concepts central to the paradox such as realism, causality and locality are adjusted to the effect that the paradox is resolved without giving up these concepts so fundamental to our thinking. We conclude with a brief note about the important role of metaphysics to the progress of knowledge and our understanding of reality.

How does thought begin? Where does the thinking subject come from? What is cognition and how do o... more How does thought begin? Where does the thinking subject come from? What is cognition and how do objects of cognition arise? This work addresses these problems ﬁrst by developing a metaphysical foundation and then applying it to develop an open-ended evolutionary systemic framework. The limitations of representation-based, object-oriented thinking are exposed and a way is sought to overcome them and access thought beyond representation. Based on the works of Bergson, Simon-
don and Deleuze an alternative metaphysics is proposed, one that replaces the individual as the primary metaphysical element with individuation as a primary metaphysical process and consequently makes difference primal to identity. This paradigmatic shift, it is shown, is the key to going beyond representation and understanding thought and cognition as open-ended, creative processes of self-organization. These
formative processes are of a universal scope and precede any kind of representable object, agency, or relation. Specifically they precede the subject-object dichotomy. In bringing forth order from non-order, sense from non-sense, knowledge from the unknown, they manifest open-ended intelligence – a kind of intelligence which is neither purposeful or predictive but rather experimental and productive. Guided by this
metaphysical approach and in conjunction with the theory of enactive cognition, population thinking and cybernetics, a framework of distributed systemic cognition is developed. It offers conceptual tools that can be applied to the study of complex systems and situations as they evolve.

Proceedings of the seventh annual …, Jan 1, 1988

A significant motivation for programming language research is to find good abstractions and conce... more A significant motivation for programming language research is to find good abstractions and conceptual frameworks that enable us to understand and re* son about, certain kinds of complex computational phenomena in a simple way. In this paper we show that the specification of ...

Modern understanding of determinism collides head on with our experience of free will and leaves ... more Modern understanding of determinism collides head on with our experience of free will and leaves little place for it if any as a real phenomenon. This article proposes a new reconciliation between free will and determinism. It traces the experience of choice to an epistemic gap inherent in mental processes due to them being based on physically realized computational processes. This gap weakens the grasp of determinism and allows for an effective kind of freedom. A new meaning of freedom is explored and shown to resolve the fundamental riddles of free will, or at least going a long way towards that end. Freedom as arising from the epistemic gap is no longer a mysterious property of an agent but rather a dynamic property of a wider state of affairs involving the agent, the distribution of computational resources and information flow. Some implications of the way that we are free and how it might be influenced by future technology are briefly discussed.

The way we become free" continues where "The way we are free" has left off in finding the more pr... more The way we become free" continues where "The way we are free" has left off in finding the more profound meaning of the epistemic gap which is a concept central to understanding the kind of freedom agents, human and others, can enjoy that is compatible with determinism. After a brief introduction that connects this article to the previous one, the body of this article is divided into three parts that deconstruct the somewhat simplified procedural basis of the epistemic gap that was developed in the previous paper, replacing it with progressively deeper understanding of the nature of the gap. The first part analyzes connections between the complexity of processes such as those taking place in the unfoldment of choice and deliberation on one hand, and compressibility and predictability of models representing such processes on the other hand. It continues to examine the effects of complexity on the epistemic gap exploring three characteristics of complex processes, namely, hidden parameters, historicity and sensitivity. The last section of this part further examines how distinct events, and their relations (particularly cause-effect relations) are formed highlighting the constructive role of the agent in forming them. The conception of the process of choice as constituted from sequences of a priori defined connected events is replaced with a more subtle description. In the second part, the Bergsonian perspective on freedom is explored in some detail. Central to this exploration is Bergson's concept of duration, how it affects our understanding of time, and consequently understanding the epistemic gap as the loci of a generative process of individuation − not merely being free as a state but becoming free as an open-ended process. The final part further illustrates the individuation of freedom in the dynamic balance between goal-oriented cognitive processes and the open-ended unfoldment of conscious experience in duration. The article concludes by raising the idea of freedom as a pure quality beyond the grasp of philosophical discourse.