Is the universe deterministic in this model?

In the model the rule and the starting state are fixed, so the entire multiway graph of all possible histories is fully determined — nothing is random at that level. [setup] The key point is that determinism and predictability come apart: because the process is computationally irreducible, extracting that fixed future takes as much computational work as the universe itself, so nothing inside it can race ahead and "know" the outcome early. On the quantum side, apparent indeterminacy re-enters through which branch an embedded observer ends up on. This is the model's framing, not an established fact — whether our world's underlying dynamics are deterministic at all is an open question in physics.