@MercurialBuilding @hidden @Arcana @nemesis This thread might be getting a little heated and calling mercurial too low IQ to understand the responses is uncalled for imo. That said, I am a free will compatibilist and agree with nemesis. The key phrase is “impossible possible worlds”: the counterfactuals we’re talking about are impossible in a physically deterministic universe but are possible in a logical sense. It is valid to ask what would have happened if the same physical laws were run on different initial conditions or if the “mercurial’s brain” algorithm were run on different inputs. The behavior of systems in these “testing VMs” is my definition of “agency.”

This stance requires carefully distinguishing between matter (purely physical) and laws of matter (which are a logical construct). It relies on the belief that math governs not only this world but all possible worlds.

There’s a related interesting line of thought in philosophy which is “modal realism”: the belief that counterfactual worlds are just as “real” as the real world. I’m not familiar with the arguments though