Agency and free will Agency is a person who acts to produce a particular result, in this case free will. The author explores the concept of free will from a biological and evolutionary perspective and concludes that it is not an illusion but a real phenomenon that rose from the human brain and its evolutionary development. He challenges the deterministic view that believes that our actions are completely governed by genetics, environmental factors, and classical physics. The human brain is a complex system that has flexibility for conscious choice. This ability evolved in animals to make decisions based on past experiences, sensory inputs, and predictions of future outcomes. In humans, the nervous system evolved to grant us a degree of agency over our behavior. He emphasizes that while our choices are influenced by biology, they are not wholly determined by it, leaving room for agency. Our ability to reflect on our thoughts, intentions, and actions gives us the capacity to choose freely, rather than simply react to stimuli. Brain is not a deterministic machine, and unpredictability of neural activity and environmental influences offers flexibility in decision-making. According to Integrated Information Theory (IIT) proposed by neurobiologist Giulio Tononi consciousness arises from integrated information generated by the causal interactions within the brain which may give rise to free will. An octopus throws a curveball to inferences drawn from human studies. Some octopus species operate their arms without direct involvement of brain, and they have a high degree of autonomy due to nerve clusters called ganglia in each arm. Indeed, one major implication is that intelligence and life may be inextricably intertwined in ways that revolve around the concept of agency, but octopus appears to be an evolutionary accident. The laws of quantum mechanics allow quantum uncertainty, which means that conscious observers may encounter randomness that breaks pure determinism. This randomness doesn’t lead to free will, but it introduces unpredictability. To outside observers, our choices might look like patterns influenced by quantum randomness rather than pure causally determined processes. This perspective could mean we are neither fully free nor fully bound by fate.