**[[165_P4_Agency-Stage|P4]] (Agency):** Coherence ([[164_P3_Coherence-Stage|P3]]) implies the collapse of potentiality into actuality. This selection process requires **Agency**. A choice must be made between $0$ and $1$.
[[165_P4_Agency-Stage|P4]] does not claim that quantum randomness IS agency. It claims that quantum indeterminacy opens a space for agency—the future is not determined by the past, making genuine selection possible. Agency is not randomness; agency is selection from undetermined options. The agent (consciousness, [[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]]) selects; quantum mechanics provides the undetermined substrate for selection. Randomness is the necessary condition, not the sufficient condition. The sufficient condition is the observer ([[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]]) making the selection.
Libet's experiments are contested and have alternative interpretations. The "readiness potential" may reflect preparation, not decision. Moreover, Libet found subjects could veto the action—consciousness has a "free won't." More fundamentally, the experiments assume that the only form of agency is conscious deliberation. But agency at [[165_P4_Agency-Stage|P4]] operates at all levels—quantum, neural, cognitive. The timing of conscious awareness does not exhaust the timing of selection.
Theophysics rejects hard theological determinism just as it rejects physical determinism. Divine foreknowledge is not the same as divine determination. God can know what free agents will choose without causing them to choose it—as a timeless observer. Molinism (middle knowledge) shows how divine sovereignty and human freedom coexist. [[165_P4_Agency-Stage|P4]] asserts genuine agency compatible with divine sovereignty through non-causal divine knowing.
Quantum collapse does not violate energy conservation—it selects among energy-conserving outcomes. The agent doesn't add energy; the agent selects which energy-conserving eigenstate actualizes. Similarly, neural decision-making operates within physical constraints. Agency is selection within constraint, not violation of constraint. The conservation laws bound what's possible; agency selects among the possible.
The regress terminates in self-causing agency—consciousness that is aware of itself selecting. The Logos is the ultimate self-selecting agency. Finite agents participate in this by being conscious ([[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]]) of their own selection process. Self-reference provides the fixed point that terminates regress. The selecting consciousness is itself the ground of selection—it doesn't require external selection because it is self-aware of its own selecting.
Heisenberg Uncertainty:
Position and momentum cannot be simultaneously determined. The future state is not fixed by present state.
Born Rule:
Outcome probabilities, not certainties. The specific outcome is not determined by the wavefunction alone.
Bell's Theorem:
Local hidden variables are ruled out. If Bell inequality is violated (as experiments confirm), there are no pre-existing values—selection is real.
Projection Operators:
Measurement projects state onto eigenspace. Selection is mathematically a projection.
Selection Algebra:
Projections form a lattice (orthomodular lattice in QM). This lattice is the structure of possible selections.