31–40 of 44 posts
Of course, that assumes that the knowledge is correct; but even the most die-hard skeptic can be absolutely certain that they themselves exist.
It's a meaningless "probability" on several counts. 1) It applies to everyone reading it, and it would apply to me if I were different and reading it. It tries to convey a specialness which doesn't seem to exist. If a billion people win a penny each then winning a penny isn't miraculous, even if it is a 1 in 1,000,000,000 chance that you win any particular penny - but the 'particular' part has no significance. 2) I a…
Very good really. Because mutations in sperms are very low. So out of the million or so sperm running the rat race to the egg they all hold basically the same info 50% (DNA) of you from your father and the egg will hold the other 50%(DNA) of you from the mother that will make 100% you. Environment factors will play relatively the same if spermA or spermB had made it to the egg. Only other factor is that the role of e…
This brings to mind the excellent Feynman quote: “You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight. I was coming here, on the way to the lecture, and I came in through the parking lot. And you won’t believe what happened. I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!” Th…
My issue is that the author doesn't really give a good reason for stopping at the probability that two human beings will reproduce and reproduce until they eventually create you.
Some interesting further probabilities to factor in:
- Chance that two human beings evolved from single-celled organisms
- Chance that life came into existence on Earth
- Chance that Earth formed at all
- Chance that the laws of the universe among all the possible universes were conducive to the creation of Earth
I should hope by this point I've made a reasonable claim that the probability of my own existence is 0.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one places much significance on the random people who win the lottery. But if that random person happens to be you , you feel incredibly lucky (and rightfully so).
But if you hadn't been born, you wouldn't be alive to ponder the probability of being born. While it may still feel lucky to exist, the probability of you being born given that you are asking the question is 1.
Very good really. Because mutations in sperms are very low. So out of the million or so sperm running the rat race to the egg they all hold basically the same info 50% (DNA) of you from your father and the egg will hold the other 50%(DNA) of you from the mother that will make 100% you. Environment factors will play relatively the same if spermA or spermB had made it to the egg. Only other factor is that the role of e…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosomal_crossover
They get new chromosomes that are a combination of the two corresponding chromosomes from the father (or mother). The exact points in each chromosome where the crossovers happens are different (perhaps almost random), so each one of the sperms (eggs) is a very different unique snowflake.
(And there are also a few mutations that make them slightly more unique.)