this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
40 points (91.7% liked)

Asklemmy

54292 readers
485 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Would it make a difference if the laws of physics prevent or allow a machine from operating in 'duplicate' mode?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Hexagon@feddit.it 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We don't know if free will exists. Maybe it just doesn't

Which would be terrible, genuinely speaking. Proving that to yourself in what is essentially suicide from anything other than a deterministic viewpoint is an extreme most will simply never do.

Most people do not accept nor want to think that they are merely watching a movie. Most people want to believe they have struggled. That they have suffered. That they have overcome that suffering. That their choices lead, at least in part, to the success or failure of the things in their life.

Without free will, the concept of choice does not exist. Struggle and suffering were built in. Whether or not you got through it has nothing to do with you. You have not accomplished anything, you will never accomplish anything. Not that there is a meaningful definition of 'You' in a purely deterministic universe; anymore than there is a definition of the viewer of a movie from the universe within that movie.