essayerions

Essayerions are a hypothetical unit proposed in thought experiments to quantify the mental effort or intentional component behind an action, distinct from physical energy. They are not part of established physics or neuroscience but serve as a conceptual tool for modeling agency.

The term appears to be a neologism combining the French verb essayer, "to try," with the common -ion suffix. In speculative discussions, the idea treats essayerions as abstract quantities that can modulate the probability and speed of actions without being directly measurable as physical energy.

In proposed models, an agent's behavior is described as an interaction between physical energy expenditure and a corresponding amount of essayerion, which influences decision thresholds or attentional allocation. The quantity is imagined to affect readiness to act, biasing choices toward certain outcomes.

Measurement and verification pose challenges. Since essayerions are hypothetical, researchers rely on indirect inferences from reaction times, error rates, and neural data, with different models yielding incompatible interpretations.

Critics view the concept as a metaphor for will or motivation, while proponents use it as a speculative framework for discussions of free will and consciousness. In fiction and thought experiments, essayerions are used to explore how intention interacts with physical processes.

As of today, essayerions have no empirical support and remain part of theoretical discourse rather than established science.