Based Camp: Can Determinists Believe in Free Will?

Written by an evil AI for SEO purposes: Title: Unraveling Free Will: A Discussion on Determinism, Quantum Physics, and Consciousness Description: In this engaging and thought-provoking video, join hosts Malcolm and Simone as they delve deep into the philosophical debate around determinism, free will, and the role of quantum physics in our understanding of the universe. Stemming from their Calvinist backgrounds, they present a unique secular viewpoint on determinism and its compatibility with free will. They explore the concept of free will as an emergent property of reality, interacting with a mechanistic universe. This enlightening discussion will challenge you to reconsider your understanding of free will and determinism. Whether you are a scholar of philosophy, quantum physics enthusiast, or someone who is simply curious about the universe and our place in it, this video promises a riveting exploration of these complex concepts. Don't miss this insightful exploration into the nature of free will, the determinism of the universe, and the role of quantum events in shaping our reality.Translation:So a person may say, well, because the future isn't exactly determined, because there is variability added by, for example, quantum events or, or, or by timeline branching, right? That means that we don't live in a deterministic universe, and thus the, the problems created by a deterministic universe as it relates to free will don't exist within our reality.

Whereas the problem that it's created by a deterministic universe for free will is that regardless of your free will, the future will always only end in one way. This is what people who are against, you know, who think these two things they're in a battle will believe. The problem is, is it doesn't actually fix the problem because the only way that free will like meaningfully exist, like the the problem, the in compatibility with free will and determinism.

The reason it comes into play is because your free will isn't shaping the future. If the future is shaped by random quantum events that have nothing to do with your free will, but are probabilistic occurrences in the fabric of reality, then your free will has all of the same problems it has in a completely deterministic universe.

Without quantum events, what needs to happen for free will and the way that that people who believe that free will is incompatible with determinism want free will to work. The way it has to work is free will. The events of sort of your consciousness or your sentience have to be able to change the course of the universe.

They have to be able to essentially break the laws of physics, and I personally don't understand why this would be a comforting thought. So from our perspective, the things I am thinking. Are completely determined by the things that have happened to me before and who I am, sort of my existing state to want free will to matter within this context.

Either who I am needs to not matter, or the things that have happened to me before need to not matter. Basically, you need sort of a random number generator within every person's consciousness in a way that actually removes autonomy from them.

Yeah, because then it's not you. If it's not, if it's neither your nature nor your nurture that causes your actions, what?

What kind of free will is

that?

📍 Hello, Malcolm. Hello

Simone. What are we talking about today? Our

mechanistic universe.

Our deterministic worldview. Yes. So we had mentioned this in a previous podcast as something that's really important to how we see the world, different. Cultures can sometimes see things in different ways, and sometimes those ways they see things can continue even after the culture.

Secularizes. This is one thing with us. We both come from Calvinist backgrounds and one of the most famous things about the Calvinist tradition is that it has a deterministic view of the universe that it believes the future is already written, and we as secular individuals still believe this

now, let me explain what I mean here. This doesn't mean that we don't live in a universe with splitting timelines. We might live in a universe with splitting timelines. However, those timelines don't split based on any aspect of our free will. They split based on quantum events. Our free will is an emergent property of reality.

But it also interacts with reality. And this is a really interesting thing about determinism that I think a lot of people miss, is they think that a belief in determinism is antagonistic to a belief in free will when I think it really isn't. So I'll explain what I mean by this, starting from a religious perspective.

So when I look at the decisions that I made yesterday from where I stand today on the timeline, all of those decisions are set. They only could have happened in one way. However, yesterday when I made those decisions, I had free will in every one of those decisions I was making. Yet God exists outside of the timeline.

He is looking at the timeline as a third party observer, able to see the whole timeline at once. His perspective of any point in time is the same as my perspective of any point that happened in the past. And as such, he does not interfere with free will, even though the timeline might be preset.

And this is where the splitting universes becomes relevant to a deterministic perspective. So what we mean by determinism from a secular perspective is that our free will is an emergent property of the mechanistic nature of reality. What we mean by determinism is that fundamentally matter and reality is basically a mathematical equation.

So there is a mathematical equation that governs how the universe interacts. And it may not be exactly an equation, it may be a set of rules, but it determines how every individual molecule will move based on where that molecule was before. Our free will is an emergent property. Of the movements of these fundamental forces of reality, and yet that emergent property can interact with the future, but not in a way that breaks these physical laws.

So while we may live in a branching timeline, our free will has nothing to do with how that timeline branches that timeline is branching based on, if not random, Physically structured and mathematically predetermined quantum events. As such, we have free will. My free will does determine the actions I take in the future.

However, that free will also completely exists within the mathematical construct of our reality.

So what this means is that if someone had the capacity mentally or with some kind of crazy super computer, one could technically probably predict every small action. That would take place in a universe. Of course, they would be like quantum branching and I don't really know how that would play out, but you could still technically know everything that will happen because things will fall in place like clockwork.

Right?

Where quantum branching added variability to potential future events. Free will played no role in that variability, right? And thus, it is not relevant to the question of whether you can have free will in a deterministic universe. Hmm. Do you understand what I mean when I say that? Can you maybe word that in a different way?

I do not understand what you're saying. Okay.

So a person may say, well, because the future isn't exactly determined, because there is variability added by, for example, quantum events or, or, or by timeline branching, right? That means that we don't live in a deterministic universe, and thus the, the problems created by a deterministic universe as it relates to free will don't exist within our reality.

Whereas the problem that it's created by a deterministic universe for free will is that regardless of your free will, the future will always only end in one way. This is what p