Determinism Vs No Free Will in Rendered State Cosmology
In working on my conceptual model of the universe (Rendered State Cosmology) I've come to the conclusion that free will isn't just an illusion, it's a specialized form of deterministic algorithm. It's transitory and gives us the concept of agency. I'll talk more about consciousness in another post.
What Physics Means by “Determinism”
In physical terms, determinism means:
The current state of the universe evolves according to consistent, knowable laws.
- It does not mean “everything is already decided.”
- It does not mean “you have no choice.”
- It simply means that given a state, the next commit follows logically based on physical constraints.
In RSC:
The current rendered state contains all the compressed history of prior states.
The next commit is determined by the structure and increasing pressure from entropy to commit.
The Constraint Gradient
Every possible future event exists as a potential path. But:
- As the system approaches a commit threshold, probabilities begin to skew toward resolution.
- This is not a loss of freedom — it’s a render filter.
Your future isn’t “written” — it’s weighted.
And that weighting emerges from:
- Physics
- Causality
- Entanglement
- Environment
- Your own actions
What About Predictability?
Yes — determinism allows prediction, but with massive caveats:
- Short-term systems (e.g., planetary motion, fluid dynamics) can be predicted with high accuracy.
- Long-term systems (e.g., weather, people, the cosmos) involve so many variables that prediction becomes computationally impossible.
There isn’t enough computational capacity in the known universe to resolve the future from the present.
Prediction is bounded by complexity, decoherence, and entropy.
So even if the universe is deterministic:
- It’s not predictable in practice (it's an n-body problem, by definition impossible to solve).
- Your experience of choice remains causally valid.
Determinism ≠ Fatalism
| Claim | Reality |
|---|---|
| Determinism means everything is decided | ❌ No — it means state evolves lawfully |
| Free will cannot exist in a deterministic universe | ❌ Freedom exists within physical constraints |
| Physics implies fate | ❌ Physics implies structure |
| You’re just along for the ride | ❌ You are part of the engine |
Your choices are:
- Real
- Causal
- Emergent from your configuration and inputs
RSC Interpretation
Entropy is the pressure.
Constraint is the funnel.
Commitment is the click.
Free will is the influence you exert within your state vector.
RSC doesn’t oppose free will — it models it as:
- Configurable render outcomes within structured boundaries.
- Deterministic compression that still allows for local agency.
What about the FMRI expriment? All that shows is there is lag in when a decision is made and understanding of it is processed - not every decision bubbles to the surface. We make billions of choices every single minute. But we don't need to be aware of them. So there's a filter/buffer in place. We only become aware of the decisions that are relevant, filtered by consciousness.
Summary
Determinism in RSC means:
- Physics works the same everywhere.
- Commit paths are entropy-filtered and constraint-weighted.
- Free will is not broken by determinism — it rides on top of it.
The universe doesn’t kill freedom.
It makes it computable — just not reversible.
What do you think? Do we have free will? Or is everything predetermined?
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