Philosophers call "destiny" determinism. Although not as famous as Sophocles, the American author Ambrose Bierce dealt with it in "One of the Missing" (especially in the opening of the story). A strict determinist would say that my writing this comment on Brands' essay was predetermined 15 billion (or whatever number) of years ago when the primeval atom exploded. But I'll leave that to greater minds than my own.
Philosophers call "destiny" determinism. Although not as famous as Sophocles, the American author Ambrose Bierce dealt with it in "One of the Missing" (especially in the opening of the story). A strict determinist would say that my writing this comment on Brands' essay was predetermined 15 billion (or whatever number) of years ago when the primeval atom exploded. But I'll leave that to greater minds than my own.