@Mezz 526872 wrote:

Exactly, our genes determine our potential, and our environment, everything from upbringing, education, indoctrination, media influence, interaction with those in our family & society determine the choices we make……………. we’re basically biological machines and with knowledge of all the variables and a complex enough computer model you could literally see your own future

Perhaps..but the signals fired by your brain are controlled by quantum mechanics, which is not a deterministic theory but a stochastic one. This certainly leaves wiggle room for free will because the particles involved in your decision making processes go about their way in a probabilistic manner.