I struggle to imagine a more intellectually disappointing reality than having a predetermined life with a mind falsely ordained to presume free-will trudging along a difficult existence driven by suboptimal decisions that are generally obvious in retrospect, thereby inexorably yet pointlessly fated to self-flagellation.
This is really what the argument for determinism amounts to, though. Perhaps artificial intelligence researchers are missing the boat on the quest for consciousness -- they don't need to create consciousness, but must only program the jealous belief that it is conscious. Malevolent divine watchmakers we would be.
Perhaps sometimes one can cut too deeply with Occam's Razor?
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