16 September 2009

sensitive dependence on initial conditions...

...is the long-cut version of the butterfly effect. Now, I must emphasize that Math abhors me immensely even though I have been constantly wooing it just because chaos theory and its partner phenomenon--butterfly Effect--are just right at the top shelf of cosmic coolness. In 'chaos theory'...Just a small change in the initial conditions can drastically change the long-term behavior of a system. Probabilities...innumerable possible outcomes. All based on "what ifs." As seemingly irrelevant and random as "What if I flossed after brushing my teeth instead of before brushing my teeth? Would I still have mispronounced juxtaglomerular apparatus during my 10am lecture class?" Or that classic example of a butterfly flapping its wings and eventually causing a tornado in Indonesia. If that same butterfly slowed down its flapping a tad, would it have been a tsunami instead of a tornado? (All this is really an attempt to put myself to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and I can't explain why.)

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And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer,
On evening shade and loneliness;
And, while the sky grows dim and dimmer,
Feel no untold and strange distress--
Only a deeper impulse given
By lonely hour and darkened room,
To solemn thoughts that soar to heaven
Seeking a life and world to come.

- Evening Solace by Charlotte Bronte

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