The Law of Large Numbers, Vonnegut, and Some Stories

The Law of Large Numbers.
What I once learned in school, simply put, is the concept that probability converges.

If you roll a die infinitely, eventually every side will settle into a 1/6 probability.
In other words, as the number of trials increases, the results lose their bias and approach the original probability, that is, the theoretical value.
By any estimate, this is a fundamental of probability theory, and there is no drama worth noting.

However, I am very fond of this Law of Large Numbers.
There is an original probability, and the process of approaching it is merely a mathematical phenomenon.
Yet, to me, this "convergence" does not seem like a common, everyday occurrence.

It is like a massive flow.
That flow, which swallows up coincidences that have no meaning individually, becomes a single meaning as a whole while encompassing everything.
Its actions take on a fateful and predestined appearance that transcends human wisdom, and it even seems like the structure of a story.
Naturally, several works come together in my mind.

The first one that comes to mind is Kurt Vonnegut's "The Sirens of Titan".
The "Universal Will to Become" seems the same to me.

From the perspective of the SF genre, the theme of "human free will does not exist," which is discussed in recent brain science and the like, might be closer.
If humans do not have free will, then human will does not reach everything that happens in this world.
If that is the case, paradoxically, something like the will of the universe becomes visible there.
Behind the typical cold SF, a faint fatalism breathes as if a story had been prepared.
That paradox reminds me of the Law of Large Numbers.

Similarly, Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" is also one that comes to mind.

This is, in contrast, a warm fantasy, a story where "omens" help a shepherd boy on his journey and lead him to the place he desires.
It is difficult to connect it to the Law of Large Numbers at first glance, but it is very similar in that a force that seems inevitable works on a dimension far removed from humans.
It makes me feel that it is not people, but the will of the swell itself that moves the main current.
Because it transcends human knowledge, perhaps humans feel that there is an encounter at the point where the story converges, not in an ordinary sense.

Lastly, I cannot help but mention Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire".

All the hardships and events in the protagonist's life seem to have happened just so he could advance in the quiz, and for the opening question, "Problem: Why did he advance?", the answer "Answer: It was destiny" is prepared.
It seems there is no contradiction in rephrasing the way a tremendous flow pours toward one certain thing as "converging."
It is natural for it to be full of drama and romance since it is a movie and a story, but even subtracting that, one cannot ignore the existence of a Universal Will that transcends human knowledge.
There is a place where everything pours.
I cannot help but feel meaning in that fact as well.

In our daily lives, regardless of the scale, mysterious coincidences and chance encounters certainly exist.
Even events that seem like coincidences each time might be stepping stones toward a certain point when viewed on a large scale.
If you stack them up endlessly, you might arrive at an unexpected conclusion.
The reason I want to call that invisible force "convergence" is because I have a partiality for the Law of Large Numbers, but I want to hold onto a faint hope that it is more than just that.
It does not have to be scientific, and it does not matter if it is too romantic.
Even if we admit that humans do not have free will, there is another, larger will somewhere in the universe, and everything heads toward it and converges.
Just imagining such a thing fills my heart quietly.
No matter which side comes up, it is made to be that way.
Because I can think that way.

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