Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that had to happen and make sure you were you ? To begin with, your parents had to know each other and then ... get to know each other better . As if it were little, only one of his father's millions of sperm had to beat the competition and reach his mother's egg.

After that occurred fertilization and a host of super-complex biological processes - which could have gone wrong at any time! However, the miracle of life has happened, and you are here reading this article. And if you've started to find yourself unique with just this brief description, get ready to check out a series of accounts and stats that will make you feel incredibly rare!

Initial bump

Just to have an initial reference, let's assume your parents met 20 years ago, okay? For according to a lot of estimates and calculations made by Ali Binazir - published by Harvard University staff - two decades ago the world population was about 4 billion people.

It's a lot, a lot of people!

So let's say your parents could have run into one tenth of the total, or 400 million people. Of those 400 million, we can assume that half would be female and the other male, right? Now, let's consider that your parents have met an individual of the opposite sex each day from 15 to 40 years old. According to Binazir, the sum would be 10, 000 people.

Well, let's focus on your father for now: if he bumped into about 10, 000 women (wow!) By adulthood, the chance that he would meet his mother among the 200 million possible women is 1 in 20 thousand! But, as you know, love is not at all simple ...

Probability: small

In fact, we have to add to the 1 in 20, 000 chance that their parents will cross each other's path, the likelihood that they will speak at this first moment (1 in 10), that they will arrange a second date (also 1 10), and the chance that they would continue to see each other (1 in 10 as well) after that.

In the end, the likelihood of their parents staying together after that initial bump and having children together is one in two thousand. Was it amazed? That is not even the most impressive: the combined odds that all of these events will work out is 1 in 40 million! Now, how about checking out the chances that you would become the result of the relationship between your parents?

The rarity increases

On average, women have a "stock" of approximately 10, 000 eggs, while men usually produce 4 trillion sperm during the fertile phase. So the chance that one of these sperm all from your father would find one of your mother's eggs is ... get ready: 1 in 400 quadrillions! Think of the absurdity of this probability. But calm down, as it becomes even less "likely."

This meeting is much more complex than it seems!

In order for their parents to meet, talk, enjoy each other's company, set up new dates and decide to have children together, their ancestors had to exist first! And we're not just talking about grandparents, great-grandparents, tatara ... who also beat all the odds above so that you could be here - multiply the 400 quadrillions by themselves several times here.

Before your direct ancestors, you have yet to consider Homo sapiens and, before him, Homo erectus, which in turn came after Homo habilis ! And these guys, like so many others, evolved from the first single-celled organisms that emerged here on Earth - 4 billion years ago. This means that for you to appear on the planet, a chain of events had to happen just the right way.

The fact that it exists and offers the ideal conditions for the existence of life is already insane!

And this is not even going to include here the probability that the earth formed at the exact distance from the sun so that water in its liquid form could exist here - propitiating the emergence of life. Nor will we even consider that the other planets in the Solar System protect us from countless space boulders that would hit us hard, were it not for the action of their gravities. And let's leave the moon and its influence over there too ...

Going back to the odds

More precisely, according to Binazir's calculations, to find the likelihood that his "lineage" would remain intact throughout the existence of humanity, we have to consider a two-fold chance that a child would be born, raised, and reproduced in each generation - for 150, 000 generations. Do you know how much it gives? One chance at 10 ^ 45, 000.

These guys all had to emerge, survive, reproduce, evolve ...

That's right, the chance that all of your ancestors successfully reproduced and your lineage survived over thousands of generations is 10 followed by 45, 000 zeros. Sorry, but we don't even know how to say this number! But calm down, the bills are not over yet!

Think that for every encounter of your ancestors, the right sperm had to fertilize the right egg - or a quadrillion multiplied by a quadrillion for each generation - which means, in fact, the likelihood that these specific cells would meet. a thousand times is one in 10 ^ 2, 640, 000. It is very zero! And these zeros are nowhere near the amount of zeros that represent the probability of you. exist!

Soooo much had to happen for you to be you!

According to Binazir, accounting for everything - that is, multiplying 10 ^ 2, 640, 000 by 10 ^ 45, 000 by 2, 000 and 20, 000 - we have the probability that you are you is absurd and unimaginable 1 in 10 ^ 2, 685, 000. . Do you know what this is?

The number of atoms that make up the earth, for example, is a meager 10 ^ 50, and the estimated number of atoms in the known universe is only 10 ^ 80. Do you understand now how amazing and absurdly unique a creature you are?

* You can check out the full reasoning and all the calculations that Ali Binazir did via this link or visit this site and see a really cool infographic based on his estimates.

* Posted on 9/7/2016