"Determinism is the thesis that only one continuation of the state of things at a given moment is consistent with the laws of nature.

Let us suppose that determinism is true ... [and] consider the two statements

• Things were thus and so 10 million years ago.
• If things were thus and so 10 million years ago, then I am working on this book now.

(Here 'thus and so' is a sort of gesture at a complete description of the way things were 10 million years ago.) Each of these statements is true. And it is true that no [human being] has, or ever had, any choice about the truth of either. It is obvious that no human being has or ever had any choice about whether things were thus and so 10 million years ago, since at that time the first human beings were still 10 million years in the future.

And no human being has any choice about whether the second statement is true because this statement is a consequence of the laws of nature, and no ... human being ... has any choice about what the laws of nature are.

But if both of these statements are true, then .... neither I nor anyone else has ever had any choice about whether I write this book. ... How could I have a choice about anything that is an inevitable consequence of something I have no choice about?"

"It is commonly allowed that mad-men have no liberty. But were we to judge by their actions, these have less regularity and constancy than the actions of wise men, and consequently are farther removed from necessity. Our way of thinking in this particular is, therefore, absolutely inconsistent."

“Imagine, if you will, that Black is a quite nifty (and even generally nice) neurosurgeon. But in performing an operation on Jones to remove a brain tumor, Black inserts a mechanism into Jones’s brain which enables Black to monitor and control Jones’s activities. Jones, meanwhile, knows nothing of this. Black exercises this control through a sophisticated computer which he has programmed so that, among other things, it monitors Jones’s voting behavior. If Jones were to show any inclination to vote for Bush, then the computer, through the mechanism in Jones’s brain, intervenes to ensure that he actually decides to vote for Clinton and does so vote. But if Jones decides on his own to vote for Clinton, the computer does nothing but continue to monitor — without affecting the goings-on — in Jones’s head.”