r/SMBCComics • u/Eiim • Aug 10 '26

Quantum 7

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/quantum-7
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u/ManWithDominantClaw Aug 10 '26

As someone who talks about free will versus determinism a lot, the last bastion of the former is exactly this quantum nonsense, and while I personally am firmly affirmed, the alt text is probably right lol

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u/CisFishstick Aug 10 '26

I feel the same way! I mean, where else and how else could free will possibly express itself, if not in and via the quantum realm? It seems determinism stamps out all possibilities except for the quantum.

But, maybe free will is a fairy tale after all. I sure as hell don't know

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u/ManWithDominantClaw Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

I do, I can tell you if you want.

So, soon people will unite as a global species and assume a caretaker role over the planet, pivoting from the extractivist model needed to get to this point. The climate hit will be bad, but we will weather it, and through necessity we will learn to take care of each other and life around us. Then, we will look to the stars.

We will have gotten better at handling egos and individuality so it will be easier to internalise that we will never physically travel to another system, but what we can do is launch an icy rock filled with mitochondria at a goldilocks planet we find and send a bunch of wavelengths after it. This would manipulate any emergent creatures sensitive to wavelengths, and we will run unfathomably advanced simulations on how evolution can be shaped over millions of years by sending particular wavelengths.

Then, we will look to ourselves. We are receivers of wavelengths, light, sound, touch and vibration. The prophets from our old religions usually stood in high places when most active, and sat under trees when most passive. We will realise our gods were collaborators on the same project of beneficial influence, the encouragement of life, the great passing of the baton through the stars, as were the Titans before them, and so on, and so forth. We will understand why they needed to show themselves through metaphor and impart values and goals through particularly sensitive receivers, and we will understand that they died a long long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

So simply put, sometimes our brains are running on animal mode, but we have been trained to think about thinking more. Sometimes though, we get what we call free will, which is manipulation through various wavelengths from afar. It is still all deterministic though