Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2608.30797

Computational free will as global selection: from sheaf-theoretic gluing to a conditional separation of P and NP

Abstract

We formalise computational free will by separating locally constrained admissibility from the selection of one global continuation. Global sections of a finite choice presheaf form an admissible set, GLUE; SELECT singles out the continuation realised at a pre-identified occurrence. A uniform trace relation certifies that continuation efficiently after the act, although it is assumed not to be uniformly anticipable in polynomial time from the prior occurrence input. Under explicit uniformity, balance, historical-completeness, and unique-projection assumptions, this trace defines a total FNP search relation with no deterministic polynomial-time selector. Thus existence of computational free will in the stated sense implies a separation between polynomially verifiable and polynomially solvable search, and hence that P differs from NP. The result is conditional and gives no unconditional class separation.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Jerome Clech. 2026-08-31. Computational free will as global selection: from sheaf-theoretic gluing to a conditional separation of P and NP. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.30797

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

Discover connections

Connections use source metadata and explicit phrase matches, not verified experimental comparisons.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

A categorical formulation of Kraus' paradox

We give a categorical formulation of Kraus' "magic trick" for recovering information from truncated types. Rather than type theory, we work in Van den Berg-Moerdijk path categories with a univalent universe, and rather than propositional truncation we work with arbitrary cofibrations, which includes truncation as a special case. We show, using Kraus' argument that any cofibration with homogeneous domain is a monomorphism. We give some simple concrete examples in groupoids to illustrate the interaction between homogeneous types, cofibrations and univalent fibrations.

math.CT

Univalence without function extensionality

It is a well-known theorem of homotopy type theory, originally due to Voevodsky, that function extensionality holds inside any univalent universe. We consider a weaker variant of the univalence axiom, asserting that the wild category formed by the universe is univalent, which we call categorical univalence. We show that categorical univalence does not imply function extensionality by an analysis of Von Glehn's polynomial model construction, which produces models of Martin-Löf type theory that always refute function extensionality. We find in particular that when the base model has a univalent universe, its polynomial model has a universe that is categorically univalent but lacks function extensionality.

cs.LO

Quantified propositional calculi and narrow implicit proofs

In the implicit version of a propositional proof system Q, we work with Q-proofs that are not written down directly, but are succinctly encoded by circuits. Thus implicit Q-proofs are potentially exponentially shorter than usual Q-proofs. We study narrow implicit proofs, a restricted version of this notion, in which lines in the encoded proof can only have polynomial size. We use a cut-elimination construction to show that G_{i+1} is equivalent to narrow implicit G_i, for i >= 1, where G_i is the extension of Frege allowing reasoning with Sigma^q_i quantified propositional formulas. We show that G_1 is equivalent to implicit resolution.

cs.LO