I've had a thought bouncing in my head today and I want to give it some air and let you folks at it to see where it takes on water.

The theory is that there's a contradiction, or misalignment maybe, between how most people feel about the philosophical concept of free will and how time travel and time loops are portrayed in media. Here's the premises I've landed on to arrive at that:

(1) The vast majority of people believe in some form of free will. (Fairly non contentious, I hope. A lot of resources back this up.)

(2) For free will to exist, if a person is repeatedly prompted to make some sort of decision under the exact same circumstances (time, place, people, etc) there must be a non-zero amount of times that they will arrive at a decision different from their initial one. For example... lets suppose you walk into the room and ask me what I want for dinner. I chew on some options for a moment then decide "chicken and rice". Then my memory is wiped and we repeat this over and over. After a few repeats of this I end up settling on a steak burrito instead. This is the only way free will could work imo because the opposite result, if given the same input you always arrive at the same output, is no different than determinism. Plus it implies, much like the time loop/travel media show, that from the start of the day we can know exactly where we will end up at the end if nothing is changed- which leaves no wiggle room for free will.

(3) The people in time travel / time loop media who are not your faithful protagonist or otherwise aware of the time based shenanigans going on always do the exact same thing every time (at least, in the ones I've seen). It's only the ones who are aware of how events have already unfolded who can make new decisions, everyone and everything else plays out the same.

Thus, virtually all media portray time travel/loops in a way that doesn't jive with how the vast majority of people perceive free will.

So, what do you think- Do you agree with the conclusion? Do you disagree on the definition of free will? Should I have gone with my alternate title? (12 Deterministic Monkeys starring Bruce Free Willis)

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like grapheneos, ali khamenei and english. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was asking.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

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If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

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I have a specific focus in mind here. Not sure if it even exists, but let's ask.

So, we all know there's a news cycle, and everyone follows it. That's my "alternative" focus here ... I want that news outlet that explicitly, assertively, goes out of its way, to not follow it. Whatever everyone else is reporting on, those Top 10 stories on every other front page, these guys skip right over those.

I'm looking for that news agency that does those "hey, remember that thing in the news 6 months ago? Whatever happened with that?" stories. The agency that says, "So, have you heard enough about the war in Iran yet? Well, guess what's going on in Honduras today".

Things that don't count ...

• Not looking for extremist, or conspiracy theorist sites.
• Not looking for sites that focus on a particular region or subject matter (mostly Ukraine, mostly financial news, mostly Green/Climate news, etc).
• Not looking for highly opinionated or partisan sites -- everyone leans one way or another, I know, but looking for sites that aim to be objective.
• Not looking for deep dives into the same news cycle ("Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, Really?").

So ... any tips?

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park Circuit
March 6-8, 2026

Next race:
Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai International Circuit
March 13-15, 2026

IT'S RAWE CEEK! Welcome back to Formula 1, everyone! Hopefully everyone enjoyed the various holidays and having a normal sleep schedule on the weekends over the last few months. That said, I don't need F1 to mess with my weekend sleeping plans 😴

I meant to post earlier in the week about predictions for 2026, but I forgot/got busy/slept, so guess I'll just ask some here.

1. Who will win this first race?
2. Will our sole rookie this year, Arvin Lindblad (Racing Bulls), podium this year?
3. Will Niko Hulkenberg get another podium?
4. Will we hear Fernando Alonso scream about a "GP2 Engine" again?
5. Which team wins the Constructors Championship?
6. Does Lando Norris successfully defend his championship?
7. If not, who wins the Drivers Championship?

Feel free to add any other predictions!

As the title of the post asked, is there anything that you are no longer a fan of/support?

Feel free to share any experiences you have that made you change your mind on something. These could something smaller such as deciding to no longer support or engage with a brand due to store clerk being a bit rude to you in one interaction, to you disliking the actions or direction taken by a corporation/creator/franchise.

I did want to note that while this thread can obviously veer in to the negative based on the question, it doesn't have to be. You could no longer being a fan of something could be due to your tastes changing over the years, or a life experience making you decide you want to change your habits.