In the year 1961, Edward Lorenz who was a mathematician and meteorologist was studying the predictability of long term weather forecasting. While Edward was working on his predictions he derived about twelve different equations to create a crude model of weather variations including temperature, air pressure, wind speed, ect. Lorenz decided to re-examine his data he inputted but decided to look at the middle, for time saving purposes. He soon realized the graphs the computer had generated started together, but then proceeded to have distinctions of curves that grew further and further apart from one another that he had never seen happen before. Initially, he blamed it on computer error before realizing the computer rounded one of the numerical values of one single equation to the thousandths place. Lorenz was astounded by the fact that one value being changed by rounding in the thousandths could have such a massive effect on the rest of the experiment, proposing the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect states, “small causes have larger effects”, a common theory being that a butterfly flapping its wings in New Mexico could cause a hurricane in China. Thus, purposing the Chaos Theory, being that every single outcome in the universe has strategically happened to bring us where we are today, the theory proposes that if anything were to change slightly, the world could go into total chaos.
Hearing this theory makes absolutely floors me simply because of the magnitude of how true it could be. Of course, theories aren’t necessarily true since they can’t be proven and there’s really no exact way to be able to prove them, but this one seems almost unfathomable. I think about this as I sit on the train, and an older man runs to the closing doors of the training, yelling for the doors to open as he slides his cane through. I am alarmed by the sight and wonder if I should help, if I should sit and watch the man struggle. He then pulls his cane out of the door, and watches the train speed away. I think back to this often because I wonder why he missed the train. What in his life would’ve changed if he had been there one minute earlier? What would’ve happened if I tried to help him into the train? Would I have put my safety and his in jeopardy? I wonder if there is an exact reason for why the man missed the train that day, and if there’s a reason I couldn’t move when my mind told me to help.
Within the Chaos Theory there is the law of Sensitive Dependency on Initial Conditions, this states that one small change in a determined nonlinear system can result in differences in a later state. To further explain the Law of Sensitive Dependency, let’s say I took a bouncy ball and dropped it on the table. Now, by the laws of physics what must go up must come down, but dependency comes in at whether the ball will continue to bounce or if it will roll off the table, and which direction will it roll. These are all things based on initial conditions we know the ball will touch the table, but what happens afterwards is unpredictable and only possible by randomly guessing what will happen, but nothing to prove what the ball will do next. In simplistic terms, humans cannot predict the future, no matter how many times the ball is dropped on the table, or what position they think the Earth will be in relation to the sun tomorrow.
Another mind-boggling fact is how we were born, and what initial conditions were there at the time. Imagine, if one's parents decided turn an opposite way, we all could cease to exist as the people we know today. One simple small change in their lives could've meant our lives would just be another, "what if" floating in the void of things that never happened. It puts into perspective that the universe might have gone into complete chaos without the seven-billion people alive right at this moment. That every single person on this planet right now could’ve sent the entire world into a disordered frenzy that no one would be able to fathom. The moments that have brought certain members of family or friends into our lives, or given us opportunities. Could all be gone without have being conceived.
Science will not always give us exact answers of why the grass was green instead of blue, why sparrows can fly but penguins cannot, or why the sun is in the center of the universe rather than the Earth. Some things are the way they are without any explanation. Although it might seem menacing that we don’t have a reason for everything, some things are better left unknown. I don’t want to know why I turned left instead of right, I don’t want to know why some people left my life while others chose to stay. These small things that we wonder what would’ve happened if we had done the opposite could’ve had a larger effect. I’d rather thank the butterfly in New Mexico, who decided not to take flight today, it avoided causing mass chaos in China.
