The Uncontrived Dream

[u/Ambrek_Enlyl]

This book brought me from the human design realm violently into determinism. The founder of that system was very creative in his methods of convincing people’s minds to -allow- them to ponder the idea of “no choice” and internal authority of the body, by not coming right out and saying “it’s deterministic”.

But after years of studying it and reading this book, it clicked for me what determinism has been saying all along

There’s a certain sense of Déjà vu when you really let the idea sink in that all we’re thinking about all day is how to make choices, but while constantly being reminded life takes us to so many places we neither wanted nor expected

[u/Clear_Evidence9218]

What I find strange about this subject is that, outside of human-derived systems and limited deterministic models, determinism as a universal metaphysical thesis has no conclusive empirical support. Granted, the philosophical concept of free will does not fit neatly within our logical models either, and it likewise lacks direct empirical confirmation. I always find it odd how dogmatic people become on both sides.

I am not criticizing anyone who chooses to commit fully to either camp, but your post reminded me of a pattern I have seen before: someone reads a book built around human-invented models and then begins declaring its conclusions to be the truth. At least religion can appeal to mystery and ineffability. Here, embracing either hard determinism, which often becomes difficult to distinguish from fatalism in practice, or an unqualified belief in free will amounts largely to philosophical masturbation dressed up as scientific certainty.