Legend

Myriad Reality

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Do you believe that what people believe about destiny says a lot about them?

@Valiance

Mm, perhaps their susceptibility to learned helplessness. As a general trend, it seems to be about as influential as other metaphysical beliefs—I just happened to be curious about your thoughts.

Myriad Reality

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I'm sure. Just maybe not enough for a conclusion.

@Valiance

Perhaps not. Fortunately, we aren't without inferences from those patterns.

Myriad Reality

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Can't quite control the uncontrollables you'd need. I'm surprised you have any results at all.

@Valiance

Even without definitive results, statistical data is still significant.

Myriad Reality

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It does seem like something very difficult to test.

@Valiance

Time manipulation is often necessary, but even those measures are often insufficient.

Myriad Reality

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May I ask what it is?

@Valiance

It's an open question. In empirical tests, isolated, identical conditions with sapient lifeforms have not produced consistent results. However, whether those results can be explained by hidden variables in initial conditions or unpredictable influence is currently unclear.

Myriad Reality

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And obviously you rest on some other opinion, given your direct experience with it.

@Valiance

I hold a different motivation, but not necessarily a different opinion.

Myriad Reality

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If it weren't true, that would imply everyone was just a big cog in a machine with either no real purpose or something beyond us. But neither of those are as fun as belief in agency.

@Valiance

And I fully accept that stance as a motivation. The practical implications are reasonably more important to you.

Myriad Reality

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Not at all. Decisions are molded by experience, which then molds personality, which then molds character, which then molds decisions, which then molds personality… Everyone starts from somewhere, sure, but everything stems from yourself. And that’s not even getting into the semantics of whether the outside force of destiny exists internally… Short answer, no. Nothing internal is deterministic like that.

@Valiance

I see. A bit ethereal for my taste, but I respect that answer.

Myriad Reality

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Fair play. It doesn’t really run much deeper than that, though. Unless you have extraordinary circumstances, destiny is the weakest influence on your life and can be easily manipulated by anyone with a modicum of willpower... Which I guess does technically mean that I do believe in destiny, but not in the grandiose image it has fostered in the minds of many.

@Valiance

Ah, but is that willpower controlled by deterministic processes built into our bodies?

Myriad Reality

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We hold as much an influence as we desire to.

@Valiance

Hmm, I think I’ll push back the same way. That sounds like it avoids the question.