Morality

I can see your point.
But for me the exitement lies in the unknown.
If you could remember a book 100% why read it again?
Or why would you play lotto if you knew that you would not winn? But you have too, since it's "prewritten"?

>If you could remember a book 100% why read it again?
Well, you wouldn't read it then. You would remember it, and that would be exactly like reading I think. Living in a predictable life is the same as acting out a prediction of that life.

I will give it a try.

If playing the lotto itself is pleasurable, knowing the outcome doesn't matter. That it is not predictable might make it more enjoyable, but if the act of playing is fun, that doesn't really matter anymore. It is win-win.

If you don't enjoy gambling, you shouldn't do it as a rule.

Okay, let's start here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomb's_paradox

>Living in a predictable life is the same as acting out a prediction of that life.
I tend to agree, but what if everything you do and will do is knowable by you and no chance to change it?

Actually, knowing the outcome of a person's decisions would enable you to make bank.

If the person ever bets on a major sports tournament, election, or stock market, having knowledge of how the outcome affected them gives you omniscience over these events.

Anyone lucky enough to get hold of such information would be able to use it to become as rich as they wanted.

I don't want to scare you, but everything you do is knowable. You're the one doing it, and you have to know what you are going to do before you do it.

What you can't always predict if the reaction of the outside world. Luckily, we are good organisms for predicting things, by and large.

That is to say, predictability is a bit of a choice: the more you think before you act, the more predictable life will get.

And pray you have good reflexes something unexpected happens.

yes but we are supposing that the effects of what we do are known (absolute Determinism/Fatalism). Eg. You know the date you die and every choice you make untill then are set in stone.

But we know that, on a human scale, a lot of are choices are predictable. If you choose to drink, you might become an alcoholic, if you choose to cross the street, you might get hit by a car. Just by pruning the branches a bit and abstaining from the more unpredictable activities, you will be able to predict a lot of what will happen in your life.

yes god damit I am not opposing your view. But the supposition (as i understood it) is that you canot prun the branches

So, as long as there is choice, there is unpredictability?

yes at least precieved choice. Now the questen is is it moral to tell someone how his live will play out if you know EVERYTHING

If his own choices can't change it, chances are, neither will yours, so it would not be a moral question for you. If his life is deterministic, so is yours, as is your choice to tell him.

So in a deterministic universe, morals don't play at all.

Okay, that's it for a deterministic universe. Now, lets see if it is moral to tell someone about his life if he can choose not to live it.

so non determinism
basicly you are telling someone if you do that this will happen.
Moral?
-> yes sure?
I can't think of a good example where it would be imoral

That's a pretty good result, don't you think? So formulating scientific predictive theories is always moral.

Unless I suppose you tell people something, you are wrong, and they mistakenly act on that prediction.

>Unless I suppose you tell people something, you are wrong, and they mistakenly act on that prediction.
YES :)
Now lets entain the notion, that you have new scientific knowledge about a thing, which in the wrong hands could cause massive harm. Are you obligated to keep it to your self? (the physicist, german drama)

You would be. Often time this is simply not within your control, but if you do have that opportunity, you are obligated to remain silent. Conservatively speaking.

Suppose you have the new scientific knowledge about a thing, except in this case you realise the world will end in 10 years. Are you obligated to keep it to yourself? Is it immoral to keep it to yourself?

What about finding out the world will end in 10000 years

>10000
This seems long enough where it makes people act rationally still. You can make plans about the maximal amount of people you can give a comfortable life in those 10000 years. So yes, tell people. If you are right.

10k years I fully agree
10 years I personally would tell the world. Mass panics yes sure. But it, suposing society does not colaps, allows people to more meaningfull plan their end.
If an asteroid was on collision course with earth and an extinction event is inevidable, would you want to know? I for myself for sure.
Now i guess the "best" thing would be to ask every single person, if they would want to know.

Why do you ask then if you already know what theyll say?

would make it easyer, but you would take the option of choosing for them so they for themself have not made the desicion even if you knew what they would answer

In a purely determinstic system where one is governed by a set of laws and all action is merely an effect of previous causation, there is no room for morality in the traditional sense.

Some people actually do believe that the brain is pre-determined in a sense, so there is no free will.

This means that what one thought were the actions of a moral agent are actually just the actions of a system and one should not be held responsible (they had no choice).

I agree. As long as it's purely deterministic, morals and ethics do not applie. But in the case of precieved non det. like our "universe" may well be, this changes. It goes into the "matrix" problem. If you can not proof that it's deterministic you have to assume non det. to live a productive life.

I would want to know, but I don't trust other people enough to want them to know.

Mind you, I think the great majority of people would take it well enough - I do believe in most people. But in our complex society, it only takes a small minority to ruin things for the rest of us.

Because I was predestined to ask obviously.