Is Life Meaningless in a Deterministic Universe?
- Ronald A. Geobey
- Jan 23
- 4 min read
As I often do, I was having an imaginary conversation with myself the other day - no, seriously, this happens - whereby I asked myself a contentious question about Kiranis, my 7-book epic SFF crossover: "In Book 3, Secrets of The Universe, Naveen says 'I'm not from your future. You're from my past'. Given that Naveen is overseeing everything that's happening here and manipulating everyone into his scheme, doesn't this imply that what everyone does is deterministic? And if it is, if none of their decisions run counter to what's already in store from Naveen's point of view, what's the point in anything they do or experience? Why tell a story where the characters can't escape their fate?"
Now, I'm sure I'm paraphrasing - and why not? I asked the question! - but I figured that the question could be summed up as per the heading, albeit with a literary twist: "Is life meaningless in a deterministic universe?" or "Is a story pointless (or even worth telling) when you know how it's going to end?" or, from the readers' perspective, "Is a story worth reading when all the characters are unable to escape what's coming to them?"
Does any of this sound familiar yet? No? Then let me enlighten you, my child...
I think it's fair to say that billions of people around the world believe they're living in a deterministic universe. "God has a plan", they might say, or "It's God's will", or "that child he allowed to suffer with cancer [if not gave it to the child] is with God now". On a larger scale, people with such views believe that we're all moving towards some great apocalyptic moment, an upending of civilisation within which context they'll be judged either worthy of joining this deity or enduring torture for eternity. Lovely. What they usually don't mention is that God has determined their eternal placement from before they were born, subordinating everything to a pointless pretence at free will.
As Christopher Hitchens said when he was asked if believed he had free will: "Yes, but I have no choice."
There are those who believe life is cyclical or 'what goes around comes around' and you'll be punished in the next life for how you've acted in this one. Not for you to know why this happened - if you're getting a bad run at life, you're simply stuck with it because of the one that came before. Redemption is only possible for the next poor sod, who will have no knowledge that someone else suffered so he might have it good.
So, do you believe in any of this? Do you think the creator of the universe (or the non-interventionist universe itself) has a plan for you? If so, do you scratch off the decisions you make as those you're supposed to, those that this entity determined you'd make? When things go wrong, do you tell yourself it's "a test" or just the way it's meant to be? Do you ever feel autonomous?
THE JOURNEY
Steve Tyler of Aerosmith once sang, "Life's a journey, not a destination". Now, while this may not have been a bold affront to determinism, it's certainly posed in the context of focusing on what's here and now, and enjoying the ride, rather than what you know is coming at the end. And before I get all philosophical (or more so) and start banging on about subjective morality and the like, let me bring this back to writing and, more specifically, to a story like Kiranis, where we know that a future entity is overseeing everything and driving everyone towards an end he knows is coming.
Is the journey meaningless?
In Kiranis, where the universe has a consciousness (The Sentience) and people from different worlds and of different species travel 'Fate Lines'; and Future-Seers, psytechs, prophets, Jaevisk Old Ones, Kwaios Masters, Sori Blood Priests and even 'magicians' (all with differing levels of abilities) predict what's to come for people on the one part and perhaps entire civilisations on the other, such fatalism requires some caveats to make it more interesting - to ensure the character doesn't just lay down and wait for the end.
After all, if it's implied that the characters can't escape their fate (although you won't know what that fate is and what's really happening until Book 7), are their interactions pointless? Are their decisions worthless, their loves and losses hopeless, their joy and anger misplaced, their motivations and concessions without value?
The Kiranis universe has Temporal Intersection Events, hugely important places in spacetime where the ongoing journey is not determined, where something could go wrong for the Prophet Naveen. Even among the Si on Earth (the ascendant psychic institution overseen by Absolution, a hybrid AI), one can be misled by this universe, especially now that humankind have reached a time in which the Prophet is approaching his own destiny, and the so-called Station Masters have started to arrive (and they guard the endpoints). These and other little devices allow for uncertainty, for a hint that things could be different, and this, my friends, is the essence of life.
Uncertainty is what makes life interesting.
At the risk of getting all 'meta' with this, most writers know exactly where their story is going (some from the very beginning, as I have with Kiranis), but they pull readers in all different directions - misleading them, using false foreshadowing, having their characters tell lies, etc. - so that the journey is interesting. (Watch the movie Memento and tell me the journey isn't interesting!)
A story is always about the journey, about who we meet and where we travel to, what wonders we discover and what we learn about not just those people, but perhaps (if the story's strong enough) ourselves. But life is one big story, isn't it? We can shape and direct our lives through the decisions we make, the people we surround ourselves with, the knowledge we acquire, the reasoning we apply. Life is a journey.
Isn't it?
Join me on the journey of Kiranis, with Book 4, Tears of The Dragon, coming later this year (2026).
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