system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do science fiction movies include statistician characters that know the odds of any particular event happening?

So in Star Wars, for example, when C-3PO says something like "Our chance of survival is only 2.5%." How does that work? Wouldn't there be an innumerable amount of variables in any given scenario the characters of the story could go through? Is my conception of what statisticians do completely distorted by this idea of being able to calculate the probability of a seemingly unknowable event happening in a matter of moments? What are your thoughts?
gpt
I wouldnt really call c3p0 a statistician, and i wouldnt really call statisticians people who know the probability of all events. In terms of star wars though, c3p0 could have referenced known facts about asteroid travel. (I.e. im sure intergalactic insurance companies compute the relative incidence of asteroid accidents per lightyear travelled). Not sure what other answers exist but am curious!