Replying to Thinking thread

Its going to be a long read, but it'll make your head hurt.

Every particle in our universe has a history - its been in location X with a speed of Y, and by simple computation, one must agree that if you know both of these facts about a particle, you can predict with utmost certainty where the particle will be in the future. Now, imagine we had this information for every particle in the universe. We know every particles past and present speed and location. In fact, if we had a super-super computer, we could enter all of these values and set up a model that would describe the entire universe, down to every last atom. Of course, such a computer and such information would be nearly impossible to attain, but the point is that this information about every particles past and present does in fact exist.

Everything is predetermined - particles can only interact with particles in one predictable way. Thus, if one were to know all the information about every particle, we could know where every particle will be, at any time in the future. If we took this model and ran it forwards, we could predict the future. We could see what atoms bounce off other atoms, and on the larger scale, what stars and galaxies interact and how. (Remember, super-super computer) In fact, if we concentrated on solely the atoms on Earth, we could predict human behavior, since our behavior is nothing more than a cascade of chemical reactions resulting from outside stimulation. This is indeed a very strange though to behold. The past history and set courses of particles dictate that I get the urge to write this long-winded philosophical inquiry, and that inevitably you are sitting there reading this text.

So we have a problem. If everything is predetermined (be it as it may that we could never possibly get all the information to 'know' and see the future, since the amount of information is truly massive), than should we hold people accountable of their actions? If there is only one future, we really have no choice - choice is an illusion, a comfort, as the inevitable predictable cascade of particle interactions drives our universe forwards.

So... what of murders and rapists? If there really is no choice in the universe, if particle-particle interactions only have one outcome and if the future is predetermined; should we blame them for their actions?