The Life of Luckia: A Thought Experiment on the Birth Lottery, Moral Responsibility, & Free Will

The following is a fictional thought experiment that’s taken to the extreme for the sake of illustrating key points about the birth lottery, moral responsibility, and free will.

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The Life of Luckia: A Thought Experiment on the Birth Lottery, Moral Responsibility, & Free Will

Imagine this…

For the sake of this thought experiment, let’s assume Luckia is genetically/biologically healthy (no brain abnormalities, chronic health conditions/diseases, etc).

A baby girl, named Luckia, is born in Angola (west-central coast of Southern Africa).

Luckia is born into a warzone with childhood memories that are marked with the sound of bombs dropping.

Luckia grows up in poverty without access to healthy food.

Luckia’s father isn’t around, and Luckia’s relationship with her mother is a rollercoaster.

Luckia’s mother has had relationships with others who have traumatized/abused Luckia verbally, physically, and sexually.

Luckia lives in a cave and homeless on the streets.

While in the cave, Luckia has little to no socialization with others and the outside world.

Due to lack of socialization, Luckia doesn’t learn many words.

Luckia’s mother indoctrinates her into what could be considered a cult.

This all happens before Luckia celebrates her 8th birthday.

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9 Reasons why Everything Matters

Let’s look at the story again, but this time with some important supporting information added.

1. Geography:

A baby girl, named Luckia, is born in Angola (west-central coast of Southern Africa).

• “A baby born in Japan is 50 times more likely to reach its first birthday than a baby born in Angola.” — Raoul Martinez
• “From 1990 to 2015, the number of children who died before their fifth birthday – mostly from preventable diseases – is roughly 236 million. And if we make it into adulthood free from abuse, violence, neglect, war, famine, malnutrition, physical or mental illness, extreme poverty, debilitating injury, or the loss of a parent or sibling, we are luckier than most.” — Raoul Martinez

2. Safety:

Luckia is born into a warzone with childhood memories that are marked with the sound of bombs dropping.

• This is based on the true story of Yasmine Mustafa:

3. Health:

Luckia grows up in poverty without access to healthy food.

• “Poor neighbourhoods, while boasting a higher concentration of fast food restaurants, have on average four times fewer supermarkets than affluent areas. In other words, people of colour and the poor live in environments that are far more likely to result in obesity. By contrast, richer, whiter areas are more likely to provide access to healthier, fresh, nutritious food, lower in salt and fat.” — Raoul Martinez

4. Relationships:

Luckia’s father isn’t around, and Luckia’s relationship with her mother is a rollercoaster.

• “In the 1950s, British psychiatrist John Bowlby showed that a child’s relationship with its primary care-giver has a decisive impact on emotional and mental development. Today, it is widely accepted among child psychologists that if a child fails to form a secure attachment to a care-giver, the likelihood increases of developing a range of behavioural problems related to depleted self-worth, lack of trust in other people and an absence of empathy.” — Raoul Martinez

5. Trauma:

Luckia’s mother has had relationships with others who have traumatized/abused Luckia verbally, physically, and sexually.

• “Stressful or traumatic childhood experiences such as abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, or growing up with alcohol or other substance abuse, mental illness, parental discord, or crime in the home…are a common pathway to social, emotional, and cognitive impairments that lead to increased risk…of violence or re-victimization, disease, disability and premature mortality.” — Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study
• “The prevalence of and risks associated with these problems are greater in people who have experienced more abuse. For instance, each traumatic event in a child’s life makes them two to four times more likely to develop an addiction.” — Raoul Martinez
• This is based on the true story of Victoria:

6. Shelter:

Luckia lives in a cave and homeless on the streets.

• This is based on the true story of Christina Rickardsson:

7. Socialization:

While in the cave, Luckia has little to no socialization with others and the outside world.

• “Brains are most flexible at the beginning, in a window of time known as the sensitive period. As this period passes, the neural geography becomes more difficult to change … The ability to learn language, possess vision, interact socially, walk normally, and have normal neurodevelopment is limited to the years of young childhood. After a certain point, these abilities are lost. The brain needs to experience the proper input within the right window to achieve its most useful connectivity … The normal development of the brain can be derailed by severe social deprivation … A child raised without human interaction does not grow up to walk, speak, write, lecture, and thrive.” — David Eagleman
• This is based on the true stories of Danielle Crockett and the Turpin family:

8. Education:

Due to lack of socialization, Luckia doesn’t learn many words.

• “Child development experts have long emphasized the importance of talking to children; an often cited 1995 study carried out by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley estimated a 30-million ‘word gap’ in the number of words heard spoken aloud by affluent and poor children by the time they start school. Since the publication of the Hart-Risley study, other research has confirmed that higher-income parents tend to talk more than lower-income parents, that they employ a greater diversity of word types, that they compose more complex and more varied sentences—and that these differences are predictive of child vocabulary.” — The Extended Mind

9. Indoctrination:

Luckia’s mother indoctrinates her into what could be considered a cult.

• This is based on multiple true stories:

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A Change of Luck(ia)

Now, let’s imagine Luckia’s life path takes two different directions with her luck…

“Bad” Luck(ia):

Imagine Luckia grows up and commits a crime and ends up in prison. Would you be surprised? Of course not. This is the “obvious” expectation about where her life path is headed.

• “For most people, prison is the end of a road paved with deprivation, disadvantage, abuse, discrimination and multiple social problems. Empty lives produce crime … The same issues arise repeatedly: appalling family circumstances, histories of neglect, abuse and sexual exploitation, poor health, mental disorders, lack of support, inadequate housing or homelessness, poverty and debt, and little expectation of change … It is my idea of hell … 90% of young people in prison have mental health or substance abuse problems. Nearly 25% have literacy and numeracy skills below those of an average seven-year-old and a significant number have suffered physical and sexual abuse.” — Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
• “Mental illness is three times more common in more unequal countries than in the most equal, obesity rates are twice as high, rates of imprisonment eight times higher, and teenage births increase tenfold.” — Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson
• “The most established environmental determinant of violence in a society is income inequality. Less equal societies are more violent … According to the Equality Trust in the UK, there are five-fold differences in murder rates related to inequality between different nations. In fact, higher rates of inequality are associated with a host of social problems: mental illness, child bullying, drug use, teenage pregnancy, divorce, illiteracy and distrust.” — Raoul Martinez

“Good” Luck(ia):

Instead of the life path of crime and imprisonment, imagine Luckia gets adopted by a family in Sweden when she’s 8 years old. Although there’s culture shock and an identity crisis, she grows up to live a normal adult life.

• This is based on the true story of Christina Rickardsson:

It should be noted that these stories are incredibly rare:

• “When poor-boy-makes-good anecdotes get passed around in the media, that is precisely because such stories are so rare.” — Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
• “Some people defy every expectation, achieving remarkable things in the face of adversity. It is tempting to view such lives as evidence that we can, after all, be the masters of our own destiny, but to do so would be a mistake. Forces beyond our control determine the resources – psychological, physical and material – at our disposal to carve out a new path, and these resources, along with countless other twists of fate, ultimately determine how successful we will be in our attempt. For every unlikely success story there are countless people of equal potential who died in poverty and obscurity due to the crushing force of circumstance. Just because the odd person wins the lottery does not mean the game isn’t rigged for everyone else to lose.” — Raoul Martinez

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Moving Forward

What now?

Maybe you noticed that many of the things mentioned above are considered to be the lowest levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: health, food, shelter, safety, security, belonging, etc. If these aren’t satisfied (or worse, are deprived), it can derail development that has lifelong implications. Why? Because our development is highly influenced by what came before it. This goes for how the brain develops biologically and how the mind develops psychologically. When you become an adult, it’s not like you just leave your childhood behind—your childhood often largely explains why you are the way you are as an adult.

A big reason the lottery of birth is so impactful is because of the Matthew effect. In other words, what comes after is based on what came before. There aren’t compounding effects if there’s little or nothing there to compound. Most people understand this in relation to money and building wealth. Most people don’t understand this in relation to biological brain and psychological mind development. For instance, those born into poverty learn less words (smaller vocabulary) which means they start school/education already at a disadvantage. This leads to worse grades. Worse grades lead to worse job opportunities. Worse job opportunities lead to worse earning potential. The “Matthew effect” starts way before we could say any human has a choice/control in anything (e.g. no one chooses to learn less words and have a smaller vocabulary which ends up impacting their entire life downstream).

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