What does "by chance" mean to you?

[hackwrench]

I keep hearing people say that they can't believe that something could happen by chance, whether it be the human brain/body bio-diversity or the universe. When I think of chance, I think that if chance occurs, then the end result is stepping through all possibilities without constraint, and thus everything must exist in a reality space. All the fiction in the world, if there is chance, must exist including variations in names. If chance, then there is a person named Bob and another person that has pretty much the same life but is named Steve.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

To me, it's just the myriad of factors, both known and unknown, that effect life. It's the associate of coincidence. Sometimes, **** happens.

 

[Quintessence]

I tend to translate "by chance" to "we are dumb hairless apes who can't figure this out." I don't believe in chance. I do believe in the human incapacity to comprehend all the causes that create particular outcomes, however. When we're too dumb to figure it out, we call it "chance" or "luck" or "coincidence" among other things.

 

[MARCELLO]

A lottery

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I tend to translate "by chance" to "we are dumb hairless apes who can't figure this out." I don't believe in chance. I do believe in the human incapacity to comprehend all the causes that create particular outcomes, however. When we're too dumb to figure it out, we call it "chance" or "luck" or "coincidence" among other things.

I agree with this. Chance, ultimately, is a word devoid of meaning.

 

[Willamena]

Chance is an informal assessment of the degree of probability about the outcome of an event. For something to happen "by chance" refers to the unpredictability of the outcome.

 

[rusra02]

I keep hearing people say that they can't believe that something could happen by chance, whether it be the human brain/body bio-diversity or the universe. When I think of chance, I think that if chance occurs, then the end result is stepping through all possibilities without constraint, and thus everything must exist in a reality space. All the fiction in the world, if there is chance, must exist including variations in names. If chance, then there is a person named Bob and another person that has pretty much the same life but is named Steve.

To me, chance is random events undirected by a person or animal. I believe that while some events could occur by chance, many or most events could not. The random mixing of the constituent chemicals in DNA could never produce DNA, IMO.

 

[Riverwolf]

Chance implies randomness. In this case, a random event is supposed to have basically no discernable cause.

I do not believe this exists, either. Natural events are not "chance"; they are reactions to previous events.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

back long ago in my freshman year physics class, we constructed a device to demonstrate that coin flips are not always random...not "by chance" if you carefully construct a device for flipping the same coin in EXACTLY the same way every time...it consisted of a spring-loaded "flipper" carefully mounted to a stable platform on which the same coin was set for each toss, with a shock-absorbing surface so the coin would not bounce on landing. We obviously couldn't control every variable, but we figured the right height, etc., to get it to land on the same side about 70 percent of the time, if I recall correctly...and we didn't get any better because we only had one lab period to work on it...I suspect given time and maybe better equipment, we could have gotten close to 100 percent...at least that's what the instructor claimed...

 

[Willamena]

Randomness and chance are similar, but not the same. If you look at the difference between a random occurrence and a chance encounter, you may see it.

 

[Demonslayer]

To me it just means "unplanned" or "unintentional." A sort of 'let the chips fall where they may' idea.

"I ran into an old friend by chance over the weekend."

It means I didn't look up the old friend, didn't know they were going to be in town, it just so happened that our paths crossed.

 

[Quintessence]

Randomness and chance are similar, but not the same. If you look at the difference between a random occurrence and a chance encounter, you may see it.

I don't see a difference, aside from the word a human is putting to it looking different. What difference do you see?

 

[Willamena]

I don't see a difference, aside from the word a human is putting to it looking different. What difference do you see?

A human.

 

[Smart_Guy]

I say it's just a words play. By chance actually means it happens in a way we do not expect, according to our own understanding and imperfect nature as human beings.

 

[Quintessence]

A human.

That wasn't a very illuminating or comprehensible answer without making a ton of assumptions about what you mean, but okay.