What If We Live in a Superdeterministic Universe?

The fun thing about determinism, is that it doesn't matter. Either we have free will or we don't and never did, yet we still act as though we do, because what else can we do? Whether or not the universe is deterministic or not, there's still only one question that matters, "How can I abuse the rules of reality to survive past the death of the stars and live to see the release of half life 3?"

Well done, Matt! I dare to say it's a super video 😁

There was a short story (“What’s Expected of Us” by Ted Chiang) about what happened when a device called the Predictor showed there's no free will and how a big part of the society disintegrated not being able to take the notion that their choice doesn't exist. So I guess it's easier to believe we have free will, so that we can continue to play the game called life. Like a computer game - you follow the main story no matter how many side quests you take.

Superintendentism is where the superintendent of your building predetermines when they are going to fix the heat, repair the windows, and clear out the clogged drains.

After the Strong Force episodes, please tell us what the Weak Force *is*. I mean, yeah, it is responsible for atomic decay.... but how, what, why? Thank you!

He deserves a lot of praise in how he describes these concepts.

0:47 When I was 4 years-old I had this idea that nothing happens unless I'm there to see it. I had no idea i'd grow up to learn that physicists agree with me. 😜

The most interesting depiction of determinism, to my opinion, is the character of Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen. His disintegration and subsequent reforming changed him so much that he became able to see the whole continuum of his own time. Thus, his existence became completely deterministic. It's brilliant because, while he has this incredible knowledge, he basically can't do anything with it. He just rants about events in the past and future at times, and people that are around him look at him in confusion and get angry at him because of his apparent aloofness and coldness, and don't understand that he got progressively detached from his own humanity not because of his powers, but precisely because of the perception of determinism. His mate gets into an argument with him and is pissed off at the fact he barely reacts because she thinks he doesn't care, while he's actually trying to calmly explain to her that she's gonna leave him and go out. Not because he doesn't care, but simply because that's WHAT HAPPENS, PERIOD. He can even just straight out tell people what will happen in the future, and he does, at times, but it doesn't matter, because he was simply just meant to say that thing to start with. It's fixed in the continuum.

11:26 "You can watch Sabine's video [on superdeterminism] to decide for yourself." Sabine would say this statement is false.🤣

if super-determinism is how things are, you don't actually have a choice (in the conventional sense) whether to believe in it or not. Whether you believe in it or not, and whether your mind changes because of this video, has been determined since the beginning of time. It's all fractal eddies in spacetime

I wish I could do more to support you and the channel because you individually and as the channel have provided information to us for years. Thank you for your commitment to science

I came to the realization of super determinism the first time I had to create a random variable in programming. The realization that there is nothing random, it has to be faked and then you have to test it that is has a probabilistic statistical distribution that corresponds to the sample size. This really hit home that everything has a cause and consequence, random is just the obscuration of perfect knowledge. This realization had a profound effect on my understanding of the universe and also I rely upon it in personal growth. I always regretted past decisions and actions decades after they happened, once I realized that it was the only action I could have possibly taken with the information I had , it was much easier to let go and be more productive for the unknown(to me) future than to regret the past . Free will is an illusion of the future but a very useful one that doesn't go away just because it's deterministic.

Honestly one of best ever channels and I hope the universe has predetermined that Matt never stops making these videos with help of the team. Thank you!

The way I've always thought about superdeterminism is that instead of being spooky action at a distance in space, it's actually spooky action at a distance in time, i. e. from the far past.

Under the assumption of superdeterminism, Cartesius' dualism is disproved. Furthermore, this could support the hypothesis that we live in a simulation where what appears random is, in reality, deterministic. Just like a random generator with a fixed seed.

Thanks a lot for the great effort you put into these videos..

“Space Time” is such a great channel. Matt is a fantastic communicator. If I had a physics teacher like him, I probably wouldn’t be a software engineer. I know he approaches things at a more accessible level but he’s great at breaking things down, that’s definitely a skill.

Quantum mechanics just has a way of throwing a wrench into everything. Its amazing how it can simultaneously be such an accurate description of reality but also leaves so many questions about the nature of that reality open to interpretation.

🧠 " ur mind isn't an illusion just because it's an emergent phenomenon... " 13:39 🧠 I like that statement... ' even though illusions do emerge from the mind, ... the mind doesn't emerge from an illusion...but does so from a real physical substrat

14:18 "When philosophers come up with a reasonable definition of the thing, we can talk." That part is gold. I read about an experiment on what ordinary people innately think free will is, and it was much less non-causal than what philosophers imply. It was more about being able to make a choice without coercion nor altered mental capabilities (unless it was your own fault, like abusing alcohol).