My message to you is this: pretend that you have free will. It's essential that you behave as if your decisions matter, even though you know they don't. The reality isn't important: what's important is your belief, and believing the lie is the only way to avoid a waking coma. Civilization now depends on self-deception. Perhaps it always has.
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
behavior, belief, civilization, coma, decisions, free-will, lie, matter, message, reality, self-deception