How We Stay Motivated, in a Deterministic World

Mind you we have a basic understanding compared to doctorates.

We don't have free will.

This is a good thing. Because we can quarantine instead of punishing. Humane. There are certain genes and nurture that make people who they are. If we were sent back 400 years ago we would have that moral intuition that its the fault of a toothless old lady at the edge of a hamlet for lightning, burn the witch. Or 50 years ago, blaming kids who cant read for being unintelligent. The talented are lucky, their skills exist. I'm lucky my mother broke the cycle of poverty.   This is fine because our motivations still exist. We only do things because we're forced or want to. We want to eat, to give a better life to others, to have a flourishing life. Meditating on a meta level in bed about whether we should get up doesn't change that your motivations are still the same as yesterday when you believed in free will.  

Common counter: Quantum randomness, has to scale up 23 orders of magnitude to have an effect on the brain. Even if so, not free will.

When looking at determinism from an interpersonal lens, it makes sense. Criminals shouldn't be blamed, it's akin to blaming an earthquake.

But intrapersonal, I struggle. Robert jokingly said that he could only act that way 3 minutes/month. If someone says "Oh, I can't change I’m just a product of circumstances," you still ought to consciously try; just because its determined you still have to put in effort.

• Potentially if we could predict how we'll 'turn out' and 'what we'll do', we can still change ourselves with this new information.