The "superdeterminism resolve dilemmas around free will" proposal

[C C]

Since this is "alternative theories", warnings are arguably redundant; but an occasional one, nevertheless, for the unwary: This piece is by Michael Egnor, the neurosurgeon who is an intelligent design advocate.
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https://mindmatters.ai/2021/12/does-supe...free-will/

EXCERPTS: [...] The problem with Superdeterminism from the perspective of most physicists is that it seems to invalidate the process of science itself. That is, if the scientists’ own thoughts, ideas, and judgments are just as determined as the behavior of inanimate matter, then science itself has no claim to seek or find the truth. In other words, the laws of physics are not propositions and they have no truth value...

[...] Recently, however, several physicists have suggested that Superdeterminism is a quite plausible way of solving the measurement problem in quantum physics so it seems to be having a bit of a resurgence. Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder offers an interesting video on the topic...

A detailed discussion of her views is beyond this post, but I note a few things:

1) I think Hossenfelder is right that Superdeterminism has been inappropriately dismissed by the physics community. It offers a rigorous and elegant way of understanding quantum mechanics and of beginning a path toward uniting quantum theory with general relativity.

2) Hossenfelder is wrong to deny the reality of free will. I think her critique of physicists who deny Superdeterminism because it denies free will has salience, but the denial of free will is self-refuting regardless of the issues in theoretical physics. Free will is a precondition for all science, all reasoning, and all claims to know the truth. As noted above, if free will is not real and all of our actions, including our investigations of reality, are determined by the laws of nature which in themselves are not propositions and have no truth value. Thus, if free will is not real, human thought has no access to truth. To deny free will is to assert it, and any denial of free will on any basis whatsoever is nonsensical. If we lack free will, we have no justification whatsoever to believe that we lack free will.

3) I do believe, however, that Superdeterminism is a viable and even attractive way of understanding nature, and that genuine free will is true and is quite compatible with Superdeterminism.

[...] In general relativity, the universe is understood as a four-dimensional space-time manifold consisting of three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. [...] It is in this timeless block that Superdeterminism can be true without denying free will and without viewing the universe as a mindless machine.

In this four-dimensional block of time and space, all of history – past, present, and future – exist simultaneously, and thus, in that sense, all of history is Superdetermined. History is Superdetermined not because nature is a machine but because time and space are a single block in eternity through which nature changes and through which we live our lives. The future exists simultaneously with the past and present — but that does not mean that the future determines the past and present in the sense of abrogating free will. In a provident omniscient Mind that knows all events at once, everything that happens is “baked in” even with human freedom to choose.

[...] St. Augustine famously said that the universe — with us included — are thoughts in God’s mind. And St. Thomas pointed out that human free will is compatible with divine providence because we are created according to the nature assigned us by God.

Our freedom is part of our nature [...] We ... can ... be free but at the same time all of our actions and all of our decisions – past, present, and future – can be known simultaneously to God who is in eternity and is outside of time. In God’s mind — which is where and what the universe is — all events past, present, and future are simultaneous.

So to a physicist studying quantum events, they appear Superdetermined because they are a single block of time and space. Yet within that space-time block, we freely choose. God knows all our free choices in the same moment, which is Superdeterminism with free will.

A universe existing in a Divine Mind outside of time would have all of the characteristics of Superdeterminism that Hossenfelder rightly endorses, and yet this Divine thought still permits genuine human freedom. There is no contradiction between Superdeterminism and free will when all of nature is understood as a thought in God’s Mind... (MORE - missing details)

[Syne]

1) If superdeterminism can supposedly unite QM and GR, how long until we can see those results? Or is this just another, in a long list, of scientism claims? Just perpetually proclaiming what science will do in some indeterminate future...completely on faith.

2) True. If you have no free will, you have no "reasons," nor valid arguments, for anything you believe. You simply believe them because you have to. Because the universe "said so," like a condescending parent might tell a child. No actual comprehension involved.

3) If you're willing to accept divine predeterminism and panentheism to justify superdeterminism, you may be straying from science.

The problem is that this conception of free will lacks the widely agreed upon element of an "ability to do otherwise." If god created a universe, knowing in advance who would definitely go to hell, he is an uncaring, if not evil, god. He created some people who were just destined to suffer forever. Theologically, that creates more unanswered problems (problem of evil) than the one this guy is attempting to solve.