Thank for for your exceptionally thoughtful and inspiring note. I’m hopeful that you can continue to afford my questions. I am out of my ilk here. 

Can you please tell me if you think we might be using the term “determinism” or “deterministic" differently from each other? Events can have causes, and some events have definitive causes, but does that ever mean that the outcome is determined as in predetermined to only have one possible outcome.  

For example, a system of negentropy provides a predetermined type of result, as in the ordering of a solar system and, as you mentioned, the evolution of organisms. But can the specific results--how many planets are formed, how many of them are gas giants, and so forth--not remain beyond prediction and be not predetermined?  In other words, is there space between a "determined type” of result, such as an ordered solar system, and a specific result, such as planet Earth?

Thank you again for your patience with me,

Peter