The Butterfly Effect
My original design illustrating the Butterfly Effect. The butterfly effect is a phrase which encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system.
The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.
13. April 2008 um 02:23
But this all is nonsense, isn’t it. Because many live creatures have wings and they all could cause tornadoes. So it could be fly effect, or bee effect,… Or the butterfly has to fly very high to affect the atmosphere and cause some changes.
(by the way, why I cant comment that article about gods?)
13. April 2008 um 08:15
Susan, it is not nonsense. It goes by other names as well, such as the “chaos theory,” the “domino effect,” “causation,” etc… Yes, other creatures could cause tornadoes too, but the “butterfly effect” just serves as one example of the chaos theory. I don’t know why you would have trouble commenting on another article.
23. April 2008 um 22:05
Ok…this dovetails nicely with a common theme in literature and film. The idea that one central event is interdependent or infact part of a chain of causality that has manifest implications for all the humanity touched by the ‘germ’ of the event. this concept is explored in the Japanese book Rashomon…which had driven the auteur Jim Jarmusch in ‘Mystery Train’ and to a lesser extent in ‘
Ghost Dog,the Way of the Samurai.
My disposition on the matter is deeply entrenched in the idea of ‘chance’ …perhaps standing on a corner and deciding to turn left or right at a given moment may alter the course of events not only for yourself but for many that might touch your life and they yours. Sort of an ‘It’s a Beautiful Life’ phenomena. I particularly enjoy the etemology
of words that morph from the sciences ,particle therory in particular ,such as ‘entropy’
into a metaphorical description of degradation and decay.I’m watching ‘fractal’ as it grows in meaning in this way.
Theres a stranger
And he’s standing at your door
Might be your best friend, might be your brother
You may never know
Irish Traditional
Van Morrison ‘Own One’s’ (Irish Heartbeat)
You might like this Travis: http://crca.ucsd.edu/sheldon/scalable/
cheers
e
27. April 2008 um 18:51
Marvelous illustration. Congratulations. Really awesome.