Trees don't make "decisions."

Their "decisions" about how to grow (e.g. which branch to grow the next apple on) are clearly emergent processes.

This is obvious because the trees move so slowly (orders of magnitude more slowly than us) and can't really backtrack from decisions.

So it's easier to see these "decisions" for what they are: probabilistic emergent bets.

In animals and humans, we see fast decision procedures and backtrackable decisions.

That feels qualitatively different: agency and proper decisions.

But what about flocks of birds?

They make what look clearly like decisions, but happen emergently.

The research of people like Ian Couzin implies that the same logic for decision making in flocks is how our neurons collaborate to make routing decisions.

Maybe everything is more like pond scum than we realize.

Considering this possibility is depressing, almost nihilist.

But look at it another way: the universe is alive and full of agency.

The universe is not some passive processes, it is gloriously alive and changeable, and we each are embedded in it.