The Human Drive to Predict Fate
The human brain has a functional preference: it is always predicting. Constantly drawing on past experiences, it seeks to reduce a certain level of fear of uncertainty—something deeply rooted in human nature. Perhaps this is why nearly every civilization has developed its own way of “calculating fate.”
In China, the practice of Bazi inferred life trajectories from the time and place of birth; in ancient Greece, astrology offered insight into fate through divine signs or planetary alignments; in India, Vedic astrology unfolds destiny and life stages based on cosmic cycles; and in ancient Egypt, Divination rituals linked celestial and earthly events. In essence, all these predictive systems rely on birth time and location, attempting to uncover the patterns that link individuals with their environment.
In modern society, science-based approaches to prediction have emerged, and their underlying logic is strikingly similar. For instance, research explores how environments shape personality[1] and how life events influence individual development[2]. I view all these theories as attempts to distill the regularities of interaction between individuals and their environments. The key difference is that today we have access to more diverse datasets and increasingly sophisticated methods, enabling us to make such predictions with greater precision. Yet unlike traditional systems of fate calculation, modern science has not established a unified framework to “map out” one’s life trajectory—nor do scientists generally seek to define human destiny in such deterministic terms.
My understanding of why these systems rely so heavily on birth time and place is that they attempt to interpret the “original version” of the self—shaped by the interplay of heredity and environment—while outlining the potential for growth within this framework. The DNA we inherit from our parents not only determines visible traits such as appearance and height, but also carries epigenetic marks that reflect their lifestyles, cognitive patterns, and even unresolved emotional trauma. Taken together, these factors form the initial contours of our personality and influence how we interact with the world. At the same time, one’s birthplace defines the richness of resources available in early life—such as the quality of education, the breadth of language exposure, and the density of social networks—which together constitute the very first input of our cognitive model. From this perspective, while we cannot rewrite the genetic composition that determines our physical appearance, we can reshape our behavior by altering the informational inputs that guide and transform our cognition.
Neuroplasticity: The Bug in the Game of Fate
Neuroplasticity is the bug in this game of fate, allowing us to revise our cognition and write new chapters upon the original script. It refers to the brain’s capacity to change its structure and function in response to experience, learning, or injury. Through sustained self-awareness and deliberate action, neural connections are constantly reshaped, and the logic by which we perceive the world is continually updated. This means that destiny is not a fixed script waiting to be decoded, but rather a renewable dynamic system. As new experiences accumulate, learning continues, and environmental variables shift, the trajectory of the individual is continuously rewritten. The best life you can imagine is precisely the best life you can truly reach.
In the process of reshaping, the hardest first step is self-awareness—the moment we realize, through our thoughts, emotions, and actions, that we need to become better. Yet imagination is an extension of knowledge and experience; if we have never encountered what is “good,” how can we even know what “better” means, and let alone strive toward it?
Also, it is more challenge in a young age, while the brain is in its period of greatest plasticity. If the environment lacks positive influences, negative factors can accumulate and create an “environmental gravity” that pulls us away from reaching what is good. In such a stage, we have little choice but to hand over the right of shaping ourselves to others.
Emotions as a Gateway to Self-Awareness
I can’t remember when I first became self-aware. It may have been triggered by adversity, as people often turn to self-reflection when they fail to achieve external goals. Or perhaps it was inspired by the positive ways of living I once witnessed and experienced.
Meanwhile, intense emotions often signal the very moment when self-awareness is needed, as emotions are the byproduct of the collision between individual behavior and the logic of the current environment. When we align with this logic, we receive positive feedback, and the accumulation of such feedback constructs our temporary state.
When we try to interpret the feedback from interfacing with outside environment, there are two points worth noticing as they are easy to misinterpret.
First, the world operates not only through universal logic but also through many niche logics. We need to remain adaptive and flexible, while being cautious not to become immersed in a narrow niche logic, as this may lead us to mistake a partial pattern for the whole truth.
Second, it is not easy at first to distinguish between two emotions that both appear positive: one is the calmness and contentment rooted in serotonin and oxytocin, which genuinely enhance our well-being; the other is the fleeting pleasure driven by dopamine-based excitation and stimulation, which can be addictive but rarely leads to long-term beneficial feedback.
If catching the spark of emotion is the first step of self-awareness, then the second step is to detach from emotional illusions and return to what is truly happening. Similar concepts can be found on Buddhism calls it ‘no-self’. This is an abstract concept that how people distort emotion as reality, and I can’t find my way to express clearly so far.
However, there are two ways that can prevent us from becoming overly immersed in present emotions and help the brain “reset” in a short time: sleep and meditation. From a neuroscience perspective, both are associated with decreased activity in the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN), a network closely entangled with the thoughts of the “self.”
During sleep, the DMN is passively shut down, which is why we often wake up to find that the things that made us mad turn out to be just ok. Meditation, on the other hand, is an active path: through training, the DMN can be quieted while maintaining awareness of the external world. It is almost like opening a “spectator’s view,” allowing us to observe without being carried away by emotions.
Integration of Knowledge and Practice
After self-awareness, the natural next step should be action. Yet there is a huge gap between knowing and doing. Many times, we clearly understand certain principles but still fail to put them into practice. In my view, the reason lies in the fact that the ‘body’, ‘mind’, and ‘brain’ are three intertwined systems with different primary function. To truly achieve unity between knowledge and action, three systems must be brought into harmony.
The brain is responsible for processing information, the mind for interpreting our experiences and emotions, and the body serves as both sensor and executor. Together they form a closed loop: knowing → wanting → doing. Thus, the first step is to transform cognition into motivation—building a vision of the goal that is personally relevant and continually reinforcing in the brain the benefits it may bring. After all, the brain’s driving force is “interest” or “reward,” though each person defines it differently. For instance, if I succeed in losing weight, I will have better energy, sharper focus, and greater health; then link to becoming more intelligent, successful, and wealthier. It doesn’t have to be logically airtight; it only needs to convince the brain that we are doing right thing. Because the best life you can live is simply the best life you can imagine.
Once strong motivation is in place, the principles and pathways toward the goal must be dissected into clear and concrete steps. Saying “I want to lose 20 pounds” sounds ambitious, yet it feels impossible to begin. But when I break it down into “dietary control → reduce sugar → replace rice with taro → cook with less salt,” the brain perceives it as achievable. Overly grand goals load the brain with too many unknown variables, leading instead to procrastination and avoidance.
The body, as the vessel of cognition and will, is both a sensor and executor, and the only interface through which we interact with the world. From the perspective of embodied cognition, thinking does not occur solely in the brain but is inseparable from the body’s states and experiences. How the body feels and acts in turn shapes our ways of thinking and our mental tendencies. Exercise provides the clearest example: regular training alters brain structure by strengthening the functions of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, thereby enhancing focus, memory, and executive control; at the same time, it regulates neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, making emotions more stable and positive.
Yet when the body becomes too heavy, action is hindered and cognition constrained, and we as a whole slip into a kind of ‘lazy mode’. This “heaviness” manifests in two ways: First, the physical heaviness of obesity. Extra weight makes movements consume more energy, much like carrying a constant load. When the body keeps sending signals of “movement is difficult, energy cost is too high,” the brain tends to conserve energy, reducing exploration and initiative. Second, the inertia of inactivity. Prolonged lack of exercise causes the body to lose agility and responsiveness, creating a sluggish inertia that makes action increasingly difficult.
Therefore, only by finding the proper ways to train and coordinate the three systems—body, mind, and brain—toward a dynamic harmony under a shared goal, we could enter a state of coherent alignment and continuous self-correction. Over time, these corrections and adjustments will become like muscle memory: a natural pattern of response.
Reflection Beyond Prediction
The brain is, in essence, a predictive machine. We constantly define and label things to understand the world with minimal energy consumption. Yet prediction alone is not enough. What truly enables growth is the correction and reflection that follow prediction. This is what distinguishes modern behavioral science from classical behaviorism: not merely stimulus and response, but a cycle of prediction, feedback, and adjustment.
Reflection, however, goes beyond correction. It allows us to transform raw feedback into meaning. From this perspective, life itself can be seen as three overlapping layers: the biological process of existence, the experiential cycles of the brain, and the meanings we assign to ourselves.
But this also raises a question for me: if one day we no longer need to achieve external goals, how then should we define a ‘better version of ourselves’. What is the intrinsic definition on better version of ourselves. Should life always be about pursuing further growth, or is it enough to dwell in coherence once it has been attained.
Editor: ChatGPT-5
[1] Götz, Friedrich M., et al. “Physical Topography Is Associated with Human Personality.” Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 4, no. 11, 2020, pp. 1135-1144, doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0930-x.
[2] Savcisens, Germans, et al. “Using Sequences of Life-Events to Predict Human Lives.” Nature Computational Science, vol. 4, no. 1, 2024, pp. 43-56, doi:10.1038/s43588-023-00573-5.
Yi Zhou 
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