Free will and survival – In Apple TV’s Foundation, mathematician Hari Seldon creates “psychohistory,” a science that predicts the future of entire civilizations. It’s part math, part prophecy, and completely terrifying. Because if the big stuff is already written, what does that make us? Background characters in someone else’s script?

It feels like fiction, but the real world has been hinting at the same thing for centuries.

We’re More Predictable Than We Think

Here’s the uncomfortable part: Foundation works as a concept because it reflects how humans behave in real life.

Individually, we’re messy. We fall in love with the wrong people, say we’re “done” with social media, then scroll for three more hours. But at scale? We’re math. Statisticians in the 19th century noticed that births, marriages, even crimes happen in eerily consistent numbers each year. Neuroscientists found that our brains often make decisions before we’re even aware of them. And the law of large numbers, the same principle casinos use to stay rich,  says that while one person might be unpredictable, a million of us together form a pattern.

So maybe you can’t predict who’s going to have a breakdown next Thursday. But in aggregate? Entire populations start looking like clockwork.

This Isn’t Just Philosophy – It’s Survival

This isn’t about proving Laplace’s Demon or debating whether your soul is free. It’s about what this means for how we live with ourselves.

If you’ve ever spiraled after making the “same mistake” again, or blamed yourself for not being “strong enough” to get out of a bad habit, here’s a thought: what if that wasn’t about weakness? What if it was inevitability?

It doesn’t mean we stop holding ourselves accountable. It means accountability becomes survival, not self-punishment. If our behavior is shaped by genetics, trauma, and context more than pure choice, then shame stops being productive, and forgiveness,  of ourselves, of others becomes a tool for staying alive.

It becomes about understanding our patterns, so we can navigate them. If you see yourself not as broken but as predictable, you can start making small, intentional shifts. Survival becomes less about heroic reinvention and more about working with the script we’re in.

Living in the Script

The hardest part is this: if the script is written, how do we not suffocate inside it?

Maybe it’s by making small rebellions feel huge. If everything is influenced by forces we can’t see,  algorithms, brain chemistry, history itself,  then the little acts of resistance matter even more. Choosing to rest, to create, to love, even knowing it might end badly.

Because if we can’t rewrite the plot, we can at least learn how to breathe inside the story.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re failing at “being better,” maybe you’re not failing at all. Maybe you’re just human. Share this with someone who needs to hear it,  and let’s rethink what survival means when control is an illusion.

Further Reading on VaginaSauna

If control is an illusion, what does that say about how we measure happiness?  Read: Happiness Leaves Out the People Who Hold It Together

When survival looks like adapting to systems bigger than us.  Read: The Business Model of Healing: Why Therapy Still Sounds Like Freud

If algorithms shape us more than we think, maybe rebellion is in the small things. Read: The Villain Era Is a Marketing Lie, But That Doesn’t Mean It’s Powerless

When cultural scripts dictate our “choices,” do we really choose at all?  Read: The Illusion of Choice: Do Dating Apps Really Help?

If you need a reminder that surviving the script can still be beautiful. Read: What Love and Sovereign Wealth Funds Have in Common