Signs: "Don't mistake coincidence for fate."

All is good now, right? Our hero's change the world by their conscious choices. But wait, why then is the Terminator back rescuing John Connor as an adult? (Money, actually. Terminator 3 was a cash grab).

But nevertheless, it does happen. And then the nuclear war does happen. Because John didn't change anything. It was his destiny to lead the resistance.

A couple of days ago, we looked at the role that choice and consciousness plays in fate/luck/destiny. But is there such a thing as actual fate? True destiny? Irish luck? Or do we mistake coincidences for fate?

Let's start with the infinite monkey theorem. Basically, it's the theory that infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters and infinite time will eventually type a perfect copy of Hamlet. This ignores the actuality that monkeys don't type, and that no one cares about Hamlet.

In real terms, if the sample pool is large enough, it is actually reasonable and possible for there to be such a large difference between results and average, although the average will hold out over time. It's why Gamblers always bust.

Here's the kicker. The reason it seems like fate is because our mind is designed to look for deviations from normal. The probability of flipping 20 coins in a row "heads" is astronomically low - but it's not impossible. And on the 19th flip, the odds are still just 50/50. But our brain doesn't realize that - we talk ourselves into thinking that the odds are stacked because 20 in a row deviates from normal.

Our brains are hardwired to notice things that go together and try to find a reasoning for them. Look at earthquakes in the news. We had one very bad earthquake where hundreds of thousands of people died (Haiti) and one moderate earthquake where hundreds of people died (Chili). But for two months, every other day we were hearing about earthquakes, and the top article on CNN every other day was about whether they were connected. Here's the truth - we had an average earthquake "season." But our minds were attuned, and we started to see a pattern that wasn't there. It's called the clustering illusion.

The same thing, I believe, happens in our life. We attune ourselves to things, and become convinced its our fate or destiny for this to happen. If you're looking for meaning, you can find it. Our lives are filled with infinite moments, and thus there are bound to be crazy coincidences in them.

This took a bit of a turn from where I expected it would go. Next time, we'll talk about the possibility that there are no coincidences.

P.S. The Gamblers Fallacy and Infinite Monkey Theorem can also be used to prove, in a philosophical manner, that the Earth had a beginning. If you can tell me how, I'll give you five bonus points.