The practical economic question here is utility, or capturing multiple preferences which may require a compromise, a synthesis between contradictory forces.

Utility has two main areas: the space of demand for goods and services, and the context of consumption or preference (shopping for food: different when hungry or after a meal). The cumulative utility from present to future is another aspect usually unsatisfactorily handled by models from the 1930s like hyperbolic discounting, these matter when addressing addiction in consumption e.g.

Precisely! Thank you for the comment. You are absolutely correct. Those competing forces are exactly what this whole process is designed to deal with. The choice wave, because it is probabilistic in a specific way, allows for a consumer to choose different bundles at different decision points and still maximise utility at each point. Just as in quantum mechanics, from whence the mathematical theory for a choice wave derives, you don't know what the actual utility maximising bundle for a consumer will be until that consumer actually makes the choice. Then, the "observing economist" sees that revealed preference and becomes part of the experiment.

So, to use your example, the choice wave would allow for a consumer to choose one bundle when hungry and a completely different bundle after a meal, yet still maximise utility at each point. I rather like that example, and I think I'll use it in my own explanations of it as well.

Also, competing preferences and the terms of competing influences can be modeled with a multipoint gravitational model (which is on the site as well). The net effect of seeing the result of all of the competing influences can often be conceptualized in the form of an overview, i.e., the overview effect principles.

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Interesting point,,,,