>But upon further inspection, this view seems pretty hollow, and meaningless.

why?

'you' are just neurons, genes, memories, environment, culture etc therefore by definition you make all your own choices.

what magical 'you' is there that could make choices outside yourself? and how does the universe being deterministic mean that you do not make choices? (as i already stated genes and neurons and culture and memories are you, so you cannot tell me that choices cant happen due to determinism, it makes no rational sense at all)