So what's the Butterfly Effect actually? All I hear is that

>>508223
I'm actually not sure myself, but I hear it has something to do with Chaos Theory. That everything is interconnected, hence, a butterfly flaps its wings and a plague happens.

I'm probably really butchering this theory, I'll shut up now.

>>508268

>...a butterfly flaps its wings and a plague happens.

wtf really? so we arent we all out killing butterflies if they do so much damage to the world

is it cos they look nice?

>>508268
Something like that.

A butterfly flaps its wings, a man sees the butterfly and touches it, he gets a disease, a plague happens

>>508223
>>508223
The butterfly effect is about how negligeable variation in the initial conditions of a system can produce a tangible difference over time

A simple math example
>1.50^10 = 57
>1.51^10 = 61

From only 0.01 of difference, we get 4.00 of difference in the later state of the system.

I haven't looked much into Murphy's law, but I think it just states how any system that runs indefinetly and CAN go wrong WILL go wrong. Basically just how infinity encompasses all possible scenarios.

It's the basic idea of chaos theory. Essentially it says that a very big outcome, like a hurricane, might be the result of a very small initial cause, like a butterfly flapping its wings. Think of it as an explanation for why we can't predict the weather accurately weeks in advance; weather can be thought of as a deterministic system, but that system is so sensitive that we can't necessarily determine what effect the current weather is going to have on the weather two weeks from now. Chaos theory doesn't really belong in this board as it is a mathematical concept.

>>508280
>>508268

Where did this meme spring from? The origin of the phrase is the 1972 paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?" The only other "source" of the concept is Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder", but there it's a butterfly getting stepped on in the Cretaceous that leads to changes in the year 2155.

>>508279
No no no man, again, I'm probably butchering this, but the butterfly is just an example of the interconnectiveness. It could be anything, a person kicking over a rock, a dog getting hit by a car, a flower thorn pricking a finger...

>>508279
>>508289

intellectual titans itt

>>508283
This.

>>508286
>Essentially it says that a very big outcome, like a hurricane, might be the result of a very small initial cause, like a butterfly flapping its wings
Well, i never really read it, but to my understanding, more specific explanation of it is that everything effects everything. Like you said, its more of a mathematical concept, but ultimate example is that the force which atoms have on each other never disappears, it just gets infinitely smaller, meaning that you moving your pinky few milimeters during sleep affects a red dwarf billions of light years away. And the affected atoms affect more atoms, the more into future you go, this effect grows exponencionaly (i dunno how to translate big words), meaning something as small as butterfly can cause natural disasters.

>>508223
I don't know about the butterfly effect but the Murphy's Law is not a law, is just a concept about "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong", it's not to be taken seriously, it is briefly discussed in science and engineering courses but it really doesn't affect the industry as much as some people like to believe

Read the Jurassic Park novel, I'm not kidding, the book is amazing.

>>508312

>Well, i never really read it, but to my understanding, more specific explanation of it is that everything effects everything.

This is definitely something that is true, but what the metaphor of the butterfly and the hurricane is specifically used to examine is the idea that for deterministic nonlinear systems, such as weather models, small changes in initial state can lead to huge changes over time. Nothing in the concept says there is an exponential growth exactly, the point is just to consider that the "initial conditions" of a system from which we try to determine its eventual results could be arbitrarily insignificant to our eyes, yet still have a considerable effect on the outcome of the system.

>>508306
Hey man, at least I'm admitting I don't know, or unfamiliar, I'd say that's at least worth something. This isn't my area of focus, I'm in sociology and religious studies. Chaos Theory has been brought up before is sociological circles.

>>508387
>Hey man, at least I'm admitting I don't know

True. Not the same person, but the idea with the butterfly effect is that something insignificant can have lead to something, that then lead to something, that then lead to something.

A guy in Germany got rejected from art school. One thing lead to another, and the United States drop two nuclear warhead on Japan.

A meteorologist made up the term to explain that weather couldn't be calculated with perfect precision, because "even a butterfly's flight can cause tornadoes in the other side of the world". Thus, it is effectively impossible to create computing systems capable of analyzing all the influencing factors in predictions.

It basically means that scientists should abandon the "deterministic dream" of learning enough about the world to create predictions about the future, and simply do science for the sake of engineering and such.

>>508223
In Mathematica, a chaotic system is when every aspect of a system of process is defined by a set of clear and exact rules. However, these rules are so exact and precise, that even the smallest change in initial conditions, can cause a massive change down the line of the process. The "Butterfly Effect" was a metaphor used in a mathematical paper, to demonstrate what a truly chaotic system would look like in real life. The small change in conditions being the initial flap of the butterfly's wings, and the massive change down the line being the hurricane that ensues.