• Causal-Influence: A variable X has a causal influence on Y if changing X (through an intervention) would change the probability distribution of Y.

• Option State: a state the agent can currently exercise causal influence.

• Non-Option State: a state the agent cannot exercise causal influence.

• One Degree of freedom: one option (one state with causal influence)

• Option-Space: Set of all options / degrees of freedom an agent possesses.

• Resistance: A resistance is any causal force that prevents a state from being an option.

• Solvent: what helps overcome a resistance, moving a non-option state into the option-space as an option.

• Recursive-Freedom: Pursual of future newer degrees of freedom (options: states with causal influence) that are currently non-options by overcoming resistances (causal force that prevents a state from being an option) using current degrees of freedom (options: states with causal influence) by synthesizing a solvent (a specific solvent configuration) that eliminates the effectiveness of the resistance.

• Recursive-Freedom: Pursual of currently non-option states (future option states) by using current option states as a substrate to synthesize a solvent that eliminates the effectiveness of a resistance, where each newly acquired option becomes substrate for the next iteration.

The Expansion Paradox: The most important structural insight about resistance is the Expansion Paradox: every solvent an agent develops to dissolve a current resistance simultaneously

RESISTANCE

Sources:

1. By the Universe: A resistance whose causal force is originates from universe's entropy, physics, nature, etc.

2. By Other Life: A resistance whose causal force originates from another agent(s) and their emergent systems' causal influences opposing yours. 

3. By You: The internal causal force originates from the agent's own systems: biological, chemical, psychological, etc.

Civilizational Option-Spaces and Personal Option-Spaces:

• Maximize Personal Net d(DoF)/dt is best coupled with Life's Global Net d(DoF)/dt: (Civilizational: Life other than you): 

• If personal d(DoF)/dt expansion leads to Global Net d(DoF)/dt contraction - it is a waste of energy

• If personal d(DoF)/dt contracts despite Global Net d(DoF)/dt increase, then both are not sustainable because the former comes to 0 first and will have no effect on the latter at all, thus only effective on a very short span dt.

• Ideally d(DoF)/dt expansion coupled with Global Net d(DoF)/dt expansion by many folds constitutes the most effective energy and time expenditure of a well pursued aliveness.

• The reference point is LUCA: Last Universal Common Ancestor - the starting reference point and the collective of civilization (other than you and including you)'s direction of life.

Table:

• Personal Expansion (+) | Civilizational Expansion (+) | Coherent Symbiogenesis | Optimal. Maximum efficiency and sustainability.

• Personal Expansion (+) | Civilizational Contraction (−) | Parasitic Solvent | Rejected. Effectively a "Counterfeit Global Solvent." The created resistance will eventually collapse the personal system.

• Personal Contraction (−) | Civilizational Expansion (+) | Martyrdom/Sacrifice | Unsustainable. The personal system hits zero before the global benefit can be realized by the agent.

• Personal Contraction (−) | Civilizational Contraction (−) | Systemic Entropy | Terminal. Rapid approach to dissolution.

Main Irreducible Skill-Sets for Humans:

Plan - Meta-cognition (Pre-frontal cortex): The ability to step outside the loop, audit the prediction layers, identify the resistance source, and simulate the solvent.

Act - Will (Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex): The sheer mechanical persistence to execute the physical probe, bypassing the legacy hardware's premature "stop" signals, until thermodynamic reality actually yields a new Degree of Freedom.

SOLVENT-CONFIGURATION

Examples of Primitive Solvents:

• Regeneration

• Reproduction

• Mutation

• Locomotion

• Perception

• Extrapolation