What are the odds of "being born"?

I've wondered about this question for such a long time, and people I ask usually misinterpret it. They'll say "50/50, you either are, or you aren't" but it's got to be more in depth than that. I mean, it could've been possible that you weren't the fastest sperm cell, right? :P

Personally I think the odds are close to zero. VERY close.

Sperm cells are what give us our body and brain, but initially, we were something else.

The odds of you specifically being born, as in the member of the species Homo sapiens with your specific genetic sequence, are incredibly slim... but if you hadn't been born, then you wouldn't be here to discuss the probability of said event. :P It's kind of like getting a deck of cards, shuffling it, and pulling out a particular card from the deck. The odds of you picking out that one specific card are very low, but you had to pick out some card, and that happened to be the one you got.

i dont think we were the sperm. i think we are the egg???

i dont think we were the sperm. i think we are the egg???

T_REX305

Very , very low. Take into account the probability of your parent's being born , meeting , and having you. Then their parents and so on and so on. Plus other such similar things. I could also be terribly , terribly wrong.

Sperm cells are what give us our body and brain, but initially, we were something else.

bloodling

Or nothing at all.

[QUOTE="T_REX305"]

i dont think we were the sperm. i think we are the egg???

Sandwhiches

Depends... does the male in the relationship drink at hockey games? If yes, 100%.

Very , very low. Take into account the probability of your parent's being born , meeting , and having you. Then their parents and so on and so on. Plus other such similar things. I could also be terribly , terribly wrong.

dave123321

Bill Bryson illustrates this idea quite eloquently in his book A Short History of Nearly Everything. He goes through the whole progression of your parents meeting, their parents meeting, etc., etc.

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

Sperm cells are what give us our body and brain, but initially, we were something else.

Filthybastrd

Or nothing at all.

The odds aren't supporting your claim though. What if we were part of the same thing that created the universe?

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

Sperm cells are what give us our body and brain, but initially, we were something else.

bloodling

Or nothing at all.

The odds aren't supporting your claim though. What if we were part of the same thing that created the universe?

At an elemental level, yes, we are part of the same stuff that created the universe. We are all recycled stardust, so to speak.

[QUOTE="dave123321"]

Very , very low. Take into account the probability of your parent's being born , meeting , and having you. Then their parents and so on and so on. Plus other such similar things. I could also be terribly , terribly wrong.

sogni_belli

Bill Bryson illustrates this idea quite eloquently in his book A Short History of Nearly Everything. He goes through the whole progression of your parents meeting, their parents meeting, etc., etc.

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

The odds aren't supporting your claim though. What if we were part of the same thing that created the universe?

sogni_belli

At an elemental level, yes, we are part of the same stuff that created the universe. We are all recycled stardust, so to speak.

Well, that too, but I meant part of what created stardust and such.

[QUOTE="sogni_belli"]

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

The odds aren't supporting your claim though. What if we were part of the same thing that created the universe?

bloodling

At an elemental level, yes, we are part of the same stuff that created the universe. We are all recycled stardust, so to speak.

Well, that too, but I meant part of what created stardust and such.

Pre-stardust? That's the best I can come up with. Frankly we have'nt a single clue.

And I apologize to you Bloodling. I was just being assy because I suspected you were trying to introduce an element of theology/creationism into the thread.

Pre-stardust? That's the best I can come up with. Frankly we have'nt a single clue.

Filthybastrd

God, basically.

o.[o]1%

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

Pre-stardust? That's the best I can come up with. Frankly we have'nt a single clue.

bloodling

God, basically.

That's fine but lets just called this God fellow Pre-stardust. If not more accurate it's at least less assumptive (is assumptive even a word?).

That's fine but lets just called this God fellow Pre-stardust. If not more accurate it's at least less assumptive (is assumptive even a word?).

Filthybastrd

I agree.

Don't forget the added factor of abortion and stuff too.

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

That's fine but lets just called this God fellow Pre-stardust. If not more accurate it's at least less assumptive (is assumptive even a word?).

bloodling

I agree.

i'm not trying to put you down if you happen to be religious btw. I'm just rather sensitive about this stuff since I strongly feel that we have religion because we don't have a definite answer.

It just occured to me that my tone might seem slightly condescending.

i'm not trying to put you down if you happen to be religious btw. I'm just rather sensitive about this stuff since I strongly feel that we have religion because we don't have a definite answer.

It just occured to me that my tone might seem slightly condescending.

Filthybastrd

I'm not religious, don't worry, I didn't see it that way. It's all about finding the missing pieces of the puzzle.

The odds of you being you are equal to the amount of sperms cells your father has realeased into your mother to one, so in terms of the odds that you will look like you than yes, it is very unlikely, BUT, this probability is equal for every sperm and so it happens whenever a sperm meets an egg so ultimately it is not as improbable as you might think.

The odds of anyone who was born having been born are 100%.

Odds are a mental heuristic. In absolute terms, they are meaningless. Something either is going to happen or it isn't. Since I don't know what variable the question is in regards to, as far as guessing whether something will happen or not is concerned, I find the question rather meaningless. Odds in relation to what?

The odds of anyone who was born having been born are 100%.

Odds are a mental heuristic. In absolute terms, they are meaningless. Something either is going to happen or it isn't. Since I don't know what variable the question is in regards to as far as guessing whether something will happen or not, I find the question rather meaningless.

StopThePresses

If you win the jackpot, you won, but the odds initially were very minimal. If you assume that you are born, that's a serious assumption.

Odds in relation to what?

StopThePresses

Well, let me say this: I believe the odds of having a consciousness (and it's not even the right word) are completely irrelevant. However, the odds of having our "consciousness" in our specific body were extremely small before being born.

What if you weren't born but instead you're in a crazy alternate universe.

[QUOTE="StopThePresses"]

The odds of anyone who was born having been born are 100%.

Odds are a mental heuristic. In absolute terms, they are meaningless. Something either is going to happen or it isn't. Since I don't know what variable the question is in regards to as far as guessing whether something will happen or not, I find the question rather meaningless.

bloodling

If you win the jackpot, you won, but the odds initially were very minimal. If you assume that you are born, that's a serious assumption.

Not knowing what something will be does not mean it could have been something else. That is just a mental construct. If I roll a die, it's going to land a certain way based on the way I rolled it. I might not know what the outcome will be, but it's still based on physics.StopThePresses

Absolutely, odds do not say that it could've been something else, odds are just that, odds.

Bad explanation, I meant odds have no effect on the outcome.

To be just a little more specific lets see..the average human male produces about 85 million new sperm cells a day these are "recycled" and there is a constant pool of about 100 million to 700 million ready to go at any given time, supposing the specimen has not ejaculated in the past24-48 hours. now supposing he ejaculates the average number is about 200 million of those spermare deployed, and of those 200 million only one is going to fertilize the egg/s that lies waiting.. now on the female side She is born with all the ova she will ever need about a million or so..when she reaches puberty there are only about 300,000 left and of those only about 400 are ever used , and of these 400 only one or two are usualy availableduring a window of about 48 hours about once a month if she is regular.

If you want to complicate things a little more you can factor in things such as Vaginal pH, semen quality, Sperm from another male (competition), and of course the health of your own sperm. etc...

then to complicate things even more you have to take into account that each sperm and each egg are slightly different than the rest..that would explaing the differences and similarities between siblings.

So in conclusion the odds of that particular sperm and that particular egg meeting, fertilizing , growing and finally being born (from a stricty biological point of view) are in the billions....

You can also take other intangibles into account like mood, location, disposition of the mates etc........

Hope that helps put things in perspective.

(1/number of sperm cells ever in parent body) *(1/number of ovaries in body)=probability of you getting born.

Of course, there's a lot more to it than that.

Whatever they were..they're getting lower...a generation of short sighted..selfish..self promoting, self-serving individuals is up and coming..

Well, we would need to know all the possibilities first, and to do that, we need a better understanding of life and consciousness. You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than of being born.psychobrew

All I have to say on being born is that I was the fastest and I won that race. :P

Well, the only reason you were born is that one specific sperm cell and one specific egg cell managed to come together.

And the only reason that it happened was because your parents found each other in a sea of other people.

And the only reason that happened is because both of them were the specific sperm cell that merged with the specific egg cell in their parent's womb... and so on.

I try not to think about it. Although if you do, it seems like there is an infintessimally small chance of the one specific "you" being born.

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]Well, we would need to know all the possibilities first, and to do that, we need a better understanding of life and consciousness. You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than of being born.-Tish-

Yeah, figures my luck would have been used up being born instead of on something important like winning the lottery.

On a serious note, did we exist before we were born?

For anyone who was born, 1. For anyone else, 0.xaos

Tsk, tsk, someone isn't familiar with the philosophical concept of possible worlds... :P

On a serious note, did we exist before we were born?

psychobrew

Yes and no. We evolved from something in this universe. After that, you will evolve pretty quickly since you have no notion of time if you don't have a body.

[QUOTE="xaos"]For anyone who was born, 1. For anyone else, 0.GabuEx

Tsk, tsk, someone isn't familiar with the philosophical concept of possible worlds... :P