Paul, it sounds like you didn’t understand. A chess playing computer program is completely deterministic, and yet it has to consider alternatives in order to make its move. So also we could be deterministic and we would still have to consider all the possibilities and their benefits before making a move.
So it makes sense to ask whether you would jump off a cliff if you found out that the future is determined. You would find out that the future is determined without knowing exactly which future is determined, just like the chess program, and so you would have to consider the benefits of various possibilities, despite the fact that there is only one possibility, just like there is really only one possibility for the chess program.
So when you considered the various “possibilities”, would “jumping off a cliff” evaluate as equal to “going on with life”, or would the latter evalulate as better? I suspect you would go on with life, just like a chess program moves its queen to avoid being taken by a pawn, despite the fact that it was totally determined to do this.
Paul, it sounds like you didn’t understand. A chess playing computer program is completely deterministic, and yet it has to consider alternatives in order to make its move. So also we could be deterministic and we would still have to consider all the possibilities and their benefits before making a move.
So it makes sense to ask whether you would jump off a cliff if you found out that the future is determined. You would find out that the future is determined without knowing exactly which future is determined, just like the chess program, and so you would have to consider the benefits of various possibilities, despite the fact that there is only one possibility, just like there is really only one possibility for the chess program.
So when you considered the various “possibilities”, would “jumping off a cliff” evaluate as equal to “going on with life”, or would the latter evalulate as better? I suspect you would go on with life, just like a chess program moves its queen to avoid being taken by a pawn, despite the fact that it was totally determined to do this.