It’s a Preposterous Mathematical Miracle That You Exist

So, what are you going to do with this incredible gift?

“Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean, and there is exactly one turtle in all of these world oceans, swimming underwater somewhere. The probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water — in the middle of that life preserver. On one try.”

Ali Binazir, MD, MPhil, relates this Buddhist allegory before he dives into the math to see how special you are in this vast Universe.

Fractal Art

He first calculates the odds of one turtle poking its head through the life preserver and arrives at 1 in 700 trillion.

The math for your existence can be extensive, so I’ll just hit the highlights. For a complete rundown on the mathematics, check out Dr. Binazir’s explanation at https://happinessengineering.com/miraculous-you-on-the-probability-of-being-born/

The odds of your mom and dad meeting are about 1 in 2000. Then consider the odds of developing a relationship long enough to produce a child, roughly 1 in 20,000.

A fertile female has 100,000 eggs during her reproductive years, and a man produces about 12 trillion sperm in the same period. The odds of one of the 100,000 eggs and one of the 12 trillion sperm uniting to create you and not your sibling is 1 in 400 quadrillion.

Your grandparents, their parents, and back to the first humanoid had to carry the material that makes you unique. That’s some 3 million years or 150,000 generations of genetic material to make you who you are, not somebody else.

Each generation’s odds would be 1 in 400 quadrillion, so the total odds of you being born as the unique you are

1 in 10, followed by 2,685,000 zeros.

For comparison, the number of atoms in the known Universe is 10, followed by 80 zeros.

You exist on the Earth despite preposterous mathematical odds. That’s a precious gift.

Now, what are you going to do with that gift?

References:

1.   Ali Binazir, You, the Miraculous: What Are the Chances of Being Born?

Written March 2, 2021, https://happinessengineering.com/miraculous-you-on-the-probability-of-being-born/

Accessed April 24, 2024

2.   https://www.sciencealert.com/what-is-the-likelihood-that-you-exist

Accessed April 24, 2024