You find yourself “in a place at a time” because every cons…

You find yourself “in a place at a time” because every conscious observer must be located somewhere in space-time. Your specific coordinates were fixed by a chain of contingent events: the chemistry of an early star, the planet that formed from its ashes, the ecological niches that appeared on that planet, the meeting of two particular humans who happened to share compatible DNA, and the moment their reproductive cells fused. All of that placed a zygote on a calendar and a map; that zygote’s brain eventually woke up and became you.