For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe the horse was lost;
For want of a horse the rider was lost;
For want of a rider the battle was lost;
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
Stop and think how sensitive the future is based on the present. How events that seem insignificant – like the motion of air across the wings of a butterfly – will change events years from now.
Is every moment the mathematical progression of every event of the previous moment?
Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things if I drive 31 miles an hour or 32? I say …Yes it does. Have you ever approached an intersection and seen someone fly through a red light and think, “Wow! if I were going through this light 1/4 second sooner – I would have been killed!” You have read about traffic accidents where someone does run a red light and kills the unfortunate person who happened to be in that space in time. What is the difference between you and them? If things were slightly different – you might not be here.
Looking back, you could have been there 1/4 second earlier. Perhaps if someone hadn’t cut you off 2 blocks earlier you wouldn’t have lost the 1/4 second that saved your life? There could have been many reason that if changed would have not prevented you from being there 1/4 second late and saving you from a deadly car accident. That 1/4 second changed everything.
Likewise, for you to have been conceived – trillions of events had to occur exactly the way it did. Otherwise – you wouldn’t be here.
For you to have been conceived – everything – yes, EVERYTHING – had to happen exactly the way it did. This doesn’t apply to just you – it applies to everybody. For any of us to have been born, everything at the moment of conception had to happen exactly the way it did or we wouldn’t be here. Every event is built from the preceding cause. If you went back far enough – the human race might cease to exist but for the air passing over the wings of some prehistoric butterfly.
What is the Butterfly Effect?
The butterfly effect is a phrase that 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. This is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.
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, for that matter, 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.
For more information on the Chaos Theory – which deal with issues like sensitive dependence on initial condition: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect)
Imagine if the air disturbance by the wings of a single butterfly is enough to change the weather patterns throughout the world, what effect are you having on the world?
Share with me an event that you feel has had an impact in your life had it not occured the way it did.
Daisy Says: All you do, are, say and think…Does matter.
