I'm no mathematician but for fun, I recently modelled the events in my life in terms of a Markov chain. In essence, that involved recording each of the major positive and negative events in my life and calculating the probability at each step of either a positive or negative outcome (the next event being positive or negative). What I found was that the more negative events occurred, the less likely it became that a positive event would occur. It became less likely for a positive event to occur because of the previous accumulation of negative events, and the number of steps (positive events) that would be required in order to 'undo' or counteract the implications of the previous negative events. In simpler language, the deeper into the well I fell, the more effort it would take to climb out.
Of course, it was more philosophical than scientific, but that to me is the definition of fate (subjectively speaking). I pulled it out recently to illustrate to somebody the difference between suicide as a result of depression and suicide as a result of life's circumstances. There is always the chance that my life will improve; I desperately wish that it would, but I cannot see it ever happening now. I think the damage is too extensive.
