Physics Biases, Does Not Prescribe

Physics Biases, Does Not Prescribe

Physics is probabilistic through and through. Thermodynamic "laws" are statistical; individual trajectories can violate them. Quantum dynamics provide probability amplitudes, not deterministic evolution. Physics describes biases—which outcomes are more likely—not necessities. This means that even at the lowest scales, there is something like differential weighting of outcomes. A proto-preference at scale $\sigma$ is any asymmetry in the probability measure over outcomes:

At the quantum scale, probability amplitudes are proto-preferences. At the thermodynamic scale, free energy gradients bias toward certain configurations.