Why does life exist? This chapter inverts the question: not "why?" but "what would have to be true for life not to exist?" Given the laws of physics, chemistry, and time, life is probable—what emerges when conditions permit. You are both inevitable in kind (consciousness was going to arise) and contingent in fact (your specific existence depends on billions of accidents).

SE Press: Life is an autocatalytic, feedback-amplifying instability—statistically plausible, but not cosmically inevitable nor purpose-driven. All existential claims are protocol-scored, empirically auditable, and version-locked for upgrade as astrobiology, SI, and entropy insights evolve.