Is the future determined?

My initial feeling after reading the first two chapter of this book is a bit of depression. Is our future already determined? As a man who believes in the law of physics, I have to say yes. Even if we take into account of the indeterminism of quantum mechanics, first there seems to be no way some free-will mechanism can harness this indeterminism to make a choice. Second, the indeterminism is only present when a act of observation happens, which if we take the whole universe as a closed system, then excluding some observers outside of the our universe, the system is deterministic anyway.

Then does life has a meaning? Or are we just mechanically following the law of physics with a illusion of free will? I delayed reading the book for a while because I was afraid of the answer. Finally I picked the book up again. The first half of the book lay out scientific evidence and arguments for the lack of free will, and the second half discusses what are the implications to our society.

My rational mind agrees with Sapolsky's conclusion. However my emotional side still rejects this idea. So how should I reconsile with this conflict? I am not sure, but one thing I should improve on is to be less judgemental about others and be less concerned about things that I cannot control. Instead, I should focus on improving myself and doing my best for things and people that I care about.

Questions or corrections? Reach me at zxieaa@gmail.com.