Wednesday, June 1, 2011

I Don't Call it the Butterfly Effect

Sometimes I catch myself getting really, really worked up about chaos theory. I think about how even the slightest difference in any sort of
decision I could possibly make could lead to an extremely long chain of events that results in a completely different outcome. It can get a bit ridiculous sometimes. "How would the universe be different if I hadn't kicked that rock? Sure, it doesn't seem like much now, but what if some guy steps on it later, and he's not wearing shoes, so he breaks his foot and has to go to the hospital, and then he doesn't make it to work, and since he's not there, someone else has to do his job..." This line of thinking usually ends with the president declaring nuclear war on China.

The point where I really start to think I'm crazy is when I start thinking "How would the universe be different if I hadn't thought about how the universe would be different if I hadn't kicked that rock? Did I get preoccupied with thinking about then, and then make different decisions later on because of my slightly altered mood?" Makes perfect sense.

This is why it was so hard for me to watch Back to the Future. I kept thinking "NO! He STILL wouldn't be born because the circumstances leading up to his conception would be completely different! The chance of the exact same sperm fertilizing his mother's eggs would be astronomically low!" It's a great movie, I'm just completely insane.

How much different would your life had been if you hadn't read this? How much different would my life have been if I hadn't added these last two sentences?

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