this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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I don't disagree with you, but it seems you've missed the point that I was trying to make. Yes, sure, the future has been predetermined in a deterministic universe. But if no person in that universe can ever figure out what that future is going to be, is there any practical distinction? To any entity within the universe, the future is completely unknown - the only thing that can be said for sure is that there is going to be a future. That is what I mean when I say that there can exist a practical free will in a deterministic universe
In my eyes, any person who would feel dread over whether or not free will exists in a deterministic universe is splitting hairs over a thought experiment where all outcomes are practically equivalent
Yes.
Yes there is.
Even if I don't know the answer to an equation I can be reasonably sure that the equation will not change half way through working it out. To someone theoretically conscious in the middle of said equation, their ignorance of the outcome does not change the fact the outcome for them does not depend on their feeling about it.
To that ignorant internal observer there is no effective difference, but that's worse in my opinion. Being delusional that you have a choice in anything you do despite any outside observer being able to tell you you don't. This does not enable free will, this only causes the delusion of free will. One must imagine characters in a book would have this delusion, if they existed in some form.
Again in a deterministic universe we are akin to those book characters, not the author. No matter what happens we have not written the next page. We have had no influence on the next page. We are simply ignorant of that page until it is read by time, or rather until our limited ability to observe catches up with the next page. To us as those characters we wouldn't know we don't have free will, but this doesn't mean it exists. It is written already regardless.