It's supposed that the presence of consciousness might (causally and deterministically) shift the informational processing of the mind without providing anything we might recognize as freedom. It could be functional without any suggestion of bifurcating a one-track universe. Yes, perhaps. But how would pure consciousness influence information processing? If we were to isolate that effect - isolate what would be lost if only consciousness were removed, leaving all the biological computing machinery operating no differently - what could comprise it? The essence of consciousness appears to be multivalence. Consciousness without choice borders on an oxymoron. Feeling informs yet does not seem to fully determine. It seems to us that the feeling is one half, and what we think, say, or do is the other. Why is it important that we actually feel? The universe is not wasteful with phenomena.
There's also the suggestion consciousness could be an inert side-effect, a little like fumes from an exhaust pipe, or hot water in the river near a nuclear plant. Maybe it has influence, but that is only incidental to what a sentient being does; consciousness could safely be removed as far as behavior is concerned. But nothing in this universe is unilateral. We continue to suppose every force has an equal and opposite force: isn't that another phrasing of the law of conservation of energy? The impressions of consciousness into this "me" object, the surprise I feel, the constant flow - it seems I consciously consider other paths because they could be taken. Not just in theory, informationally: by the universe.
It seems to me that to will is to compute, but maybe it is not to compute deterministically. There's no shame in a hypothesis, even when some studies appear to contradict it.
Certainly I could be mistaken. This - what we feel - is not an absolute proof. But maybe it's evidence all the same. It's an empirical observation shared across humanity and history.
