Determined or Random

I'm glad that you brought that up because it takes me to my second problem with determinism. Let's try and visualize your argument.

D

>ID - ID

R > R

ED
So, and action is either Random (R) or Determined. If it's Determined it's either Internally (ID) or Externally (ED) Determined. If it's Externally Determined, then you have no control. If it's Internally Determined, then the internal determination is either Determined or Random. And I'm guessing that by "Determined" you mean "The necessary byproduct of an antecedent chain in which the actor or mechanism could not have done otherwise," Correct? Is that close? Does that make sense? I feel like there are a lot of presuppositions that need to be unpacked.

Hym "So, how is asking whether or not something is determined or random any different than asking whether or not my bedroom is hot or cold? It's both. And neither. It's, like, luke warm. So, you presuppose the absence of a grey area between determined and random. That random and determine don't exist on a spectrum in the same way hot and cold exist on a spectrum. As though thinks can't be more or less determined or more or less random. Is the outcome of a coin to more or less random than the outcome of rolling a 20 sided dice? You could say that the outcome is determined I guess. By the exact about of force used to roll the dice or flip the coin.

The relationship between the material of the dice and the material of the surface of the table or the conditions of the air in the room you're flipping the coin. Also, if we accept 'determined' as 'the necessary byproduct of an antecedent chain in which the actor or mechanism could not have done otherwise' you presuppose that what happens in response to a given antecedent chain is what OUGHT to happen in response to said chain. So, Antecedent Chain A -> either Outcome A or Outcome B. If ACA -> OA then you have to presuppose that what ought to happen in response to ACA is OA. If ACA -> OB then, again, you're forced to presuppose that what ought a happen in response to ACA is OB. But if the likelihood of ACA leading to OB is 1% and it HAPPENS ANYWAY... What you have is NOT an outcome that 'couldn't have been otherwise' but, rather, SHOULD have been otherwise and wasn't. Ya feel me? So, I know this doesn't demonstrate free will but I don't think you have been able to successfully demonstrate that there isn't a point at which 'the self' is not the fundamental locus of control in any given choice. It's a good argument though. It's tricky. But it's like a weird semantic blackhole. It's like saying 'Well, if you don't actively control the firing of your neurons, you don't actually control yourself.' Just weird. Determined or random."

by Hym Iam December 5, 2023

The 👑 of randomness

The most random king

The 👑 of randomness is too random sometimes.

by B1chesIoI March 2, 2024

blissey please stop typing random shit

When Blissey derails conversations usually about some pokemon shit or things being adorable

Blissey: There is nothing kinky about vulperas, they are just a race in wow. It's the same as saying you find gnomes adorable because they are small, or you find the tusks on an orc adorable

Hellner: blissey please stop typing random shit

by shinhows May 7, 2024

Look up random stuff

searching random stuff on the internet because of extreme boredom

Kyle: "what are you doing"
Tim: "Im going to look up random stuff like asdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiop

by fiiiintajie9aohoua8u90dgvadymn November 24, 2024

Fooled by Randomness Theory

The theory, from Taleb's book of the same name, that humans systematically misinterpret random events, seeing patterns where none exist and attributing skill to luck. Fooled by Randomness Theory argues that we are narrative creatures, wired to find stories in noise, to see causes where there are only correlations, to believe we understand what is actually random. Successful traders are often just lucky, not skilled; failed entrepreneurs are often just unlucky, not incompetent. The theory explains why we overestimate our ability to predict, why we trust experts who are actually random, why we build theories on statistical flukes. It's the foundation of skepticism about success stories, about "genius" CEOs, about anyone whose track record could be explained by chance. The theory doesn't deny skill; it insists on distinguishing skill from luck—and shows how bad we are at that distinction.

Example: "The hedge fund manager had ten years of brilliant returns. Fooled by Randomness Theory asked: could this happen by chance? The math said yes—a few funds will always be lucky by pure randomness. The manager was celebrated as a genius until the next ten years revealed the truth: he'd been lucky, not skilled. His investors had been fooled by randomness."

by Dumu The Void March 7, 2026

Illusion by Randomness Theory

A framework proposing that we are not only fooled by randomness (seeing patterns where none exist) but also by the illusion that randomness explains everything—that we systematically attribute to chance what is actually structured, caused, or designed. Illusion by Randomness Theory reveals the opposite bias: seeing randomness where there is pattern, dismissing genuine signals as noise, attributing to luck what is actually skill, structure, or causality. It's the bias of the hyper-skeptic, the debunker, the person who explains away every anomaly as coincidence. While Taleb warned against seeing patterns in noise, Illusion by Randomness warns against seeing noise in patterns—a complementary blindness that is equally dangerous.

Illusion by Randomness Theory "He won the lottery twice. 'Just randomness,' they said. But the lottery wasn't random—it was rigged. Illusion by Randomness: seeing chance where there's corruption, dismissing pattern as noise. The bias protects us from seeing structure we'd rather not acknowledge. Not everything random is random; sometimes the pattern is real, and we just don't want to see it."

by Dumu The Void March 8, 2026

when I randomly pick up SHIT I found in New York

why did you pick it up dumb ass.

"# when I randomly pick up SHIT I found in New York"

by @HEYBITCHS March 7, 2025