What are the odds of being alive?
According to the internet, the probability of your existing is 1 in 10^2,685,000.
For those of you unfamiliar with scientific notation, that second number is a 10 followed by almost 2.7 million zeros.
Here is what 1,000 zeros looks like:
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Imagine that number of zeros… 2,685 times over.
1 in 10^2,685,000.
For scale, the number of atoms in the entire universe is only 10^80.
Why is your existence so improbable? Well, it required the unbroken stretch of survival and reproduction of all your ancestors, reaching back 4 billion years to single-celled organisms. It required your parents meeting and reproducing to create your singular set of genes (the odds of that alone are 1 in 400 quadrillion).
1 in 10^2,685,000.
…
To contrast, the odds of you dying are 1 in 1.
Dying is nothing special – that reality is corroborated by math.
But your being alive is nearly impossible. That probability is the same as if you handed out 2 million dice, each die with one trillion sides… then rolled those 2 million dice and had them all land on 439,505,270,846.
Again, I can’t stress this enough, the odds of dying are 1 in 1. (Not even 1 in 2).
Dying is totally ordinary. It’s so ordinary it’s assured. Dying is the most natural, completely average thing you can do.
In contrast, being alive is so stupendously unlikely it’s almost impossible. It’s supranatural. The odds are so breathtakingly close to zero they almost are zero.
If that’s not a call to live with an exhilarating, exploding gratitude, I don’t know what is.
Live your life like the remarkable, incredible rareness that it is.
Do it because you are the lucky stardust of the universe that got to wake up and look around.
Lucky you.
Lucky me.
Lucky dust.
Reference:
https://www.sciencealert.com/what-is-the-likelihood-that-you-exist
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/probability-being-born_b_877853