Proton decay half-life is estimated to be 10^34 years.

Proton decay has never been observed. Enormous unverified estimates of proton half-life have been hypothesized as filler for various theories.
en.wikipedia.org - Proton decay

All that aside, what I'm pointing to is the dramatic contrast between the manifest persistence of protons and the ephemerality of their constituent quarks, the latter interfacing finite materiality and infinite potentiality.

Spacetime, the matrix of perceived existence, is emergent within this interface. Organically evolving perception, including humankind with its vaunted cerebra, is a product of this emergence.

It's a leap to consider the transition from infinite possibilities to spacetime perception, yet that's precisely where the causal feedback required for free will must reside. Free will boils down to whether or not materiality (proton persistence) bears any influence on its ever present atemporal quantum emergence.

I'd argue that if it didn't, there'd be no persistence. And if it does, all the machinations of organic evolution are reflected in whatever comes next.

In the context of thousands of years of argument among the most brilliant of minds, I doubt these observations are likely to prove persuasive to those already convinced of their conclusions, but they do the job for me. And I'd like nothing more than to further refine them.