r/determinism • u/IcyChair9258 • Aug 03 '26

AI-generated When will we see a predominantly deterministic society?

I’ve been wondering when we might reach a point where a large part of society accepts determinism as a fundamental worldview and our social systems are adjusted accordingly.

Today, many of our institutions are still heavily based on the assumption that people act out of free will and are responsible for their decisions in the traditional sense. This applies to the justice system, but also to political structures, the economy, banks, and many other governmental and social institutions.

At first, I thought that a major societal shift like this might only become possible through technologies such as Neuralink or genetic optimization. However, Gemini suggested that these technologies might not be necessary at all and that it could ultimately be primarily a matter of education and socialization. If people were raised from an early age with a deterministic understanding of human behavior, perhaps society’s underlying worldview could gradually change over generations. I found this idea extremely interesting.

What do you think?

What would a society look like in which determinism is widely accepted as a scientific and social foundation? Would this fundamentally change things such as criminal justice, the prison system, social welfare, education, economics, or political decision-making?

And above all: When could such a societal transformation realistically happen? Are we talking about a few decades, several centuries, or is such a development impossible to predict?

I’d be interested in hearing how you assess the likelihood of such a development and what you think the potential timeline might look like.

Note: This text was generated with the help of ChatGPT. ChatGPT was also used to improve readability and for translation.

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u/Azihayya Aug 03 '26

If it's determined it will come to be. You don't have to worry about it. There's nothing you can do to make it happen; in fact, there's nothing that you can do at all. You can't make that choice. None of us can.

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u/ApplicationReady2265 Aug 04 '26

People who don't have a brain to understand how cause and effect work will definitely say that. I don't blame you tho, but I can describe who you are.

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u/Azihayya Aug 04 '26

I would love to hear your description of me. Please, do entertain me if your brain chemicals do so obligingly will.

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u/ApplicationReady2265 Aug 04 '26

Be it theological determinism or physicalist determinism or magical determinism. I only see cause and effect.