Fate surely exists.

People cannot choose the place, era and circumstances under which they are born.  As a result the condition under which each person lives is different the moment they're born.

This is fate.

And it's natural…
for the world to be cruel.

The beginning of life is just a scientific reaction.
Soul doesn't exist. Spirit is but a sparkle of nerve cells.
The human existence is just a shadow of memory information.
Even if you have to live alone in a godless and cruel world…

I order you with all my will.
Live!!

Eliez… no, wait: Desty Nova

Edit: Okay, I got it, sorry for the noise. I posted it because it just hit me how frighteningly close the mainstream LW world view is from such an archetypal mad scientist. The first part sounds a bit cynic for my taste, but the second part closely reminded me of this, this, this, and this (last sentence).

Gunnm, readers know that Desty Nova is by himself an existential risk. Despite him loathing the second law of thermodynamics, his potential for entropy maximization is almost limitless. In other words, he is Evil. I realized that the Mad Scientist archetype is partly responsible for popular association of immortality and Evil, science and Evil, possibly even atheism and Evil. (I must say that Gunnm itself is not too guilty of that: the heroin may still have problems with immortality, but she sees uploads as moral beings. Some long lived, non-ageing people like to eat babies (literally), but others are still decent.)

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2 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 9:26 PM

Fate is a predestined ending, not a predestined beginning.

Your beginning is so decisive for your end that calling it "fate" isn't such a stretch. Compare "born rich" vs "born poor".

But that wasn't my main point. I much, much prefer the second part of the quote, starting from "The beginning of life…". I included the first part only because I didn't want to cut his monologue. I reckon I probably shouldn't have.