Thursday, January 23, 2020
The Butterfly Effect
The Webster Dictionary definition of the Butterfly Effect a property of chaotic systems (such as the atmosphere) by which small changes in initial conditions can lead to large-scale and unpredictable variation in the future state of the system. I find this to be a very interesting concept. The most popular examples are: if a butterfly flaps its wings in Japan, it could cause a hurricane in America. Also there is an example where if you are time traveling and you accidentally kill a butterfly in the past, the entire future is different. This begs the question. Are we, human beings, actually capable of free will or are we too interconnected to have free will.
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3 comments:
Free will is, in some ways, a very nebulous concept. It has its root in the idea that people can choose themselves and that ultimately there is no force other than one's consciousness driving that decision. If what Andreas is suggesting is true, then every event in the universe came into existence the moment the universe came into being, and thus our lives were mapped out 13.8 billion years ago. There is some indication that we do not have free will. According to the Atlantic, "Many scientists say that the American physiologist Benjamin Libet demonstrated in the 1980s that we have no free will. It was already known that electrical activity builds up in a person’s brain before she, for example, moves her hand; Libet showed that this buildup occurs before the person consciously makes a decision to move. The conscious experience of deciding to act, which we usually associate with free will, appears to be an add-on, a post hoc reconstruction of events that occurs after the brain has already set the act in motion." Ultimately while I like to believe that we have free will, there is evidence to the contrary and even my writing this post may have been decided before I even started.
P.S.: There is a great video on this topic by VSauce which I have posted the link to below.
Video: https://youtu.be/lmI7NnMqwLQ
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-will/480750/
After reading you post Andreas, I could help but think about Travis Scott’s song “Butterfly Effect.” I began to think whether this was just a cool name for the song or really had a connection to the”butterfly effect.” After researching about the song, I came across the following:
“Aside from the butterflies in the video, does Travis have any idea what he’s rapping about or did he just pick a phrase that sounds cool? I think that Travis indeed has a layered, metaphorical approach to his rapping and that this song does discuss the nature of fate from a personal perspective, which leads to the song’s success. The chorus remains catchy but in the theme of fate and the decisions we all make on the day to day. The rhyming and wordplay techniques send a mesmerizing message that bring a personal but relatable touch to the song, creating an experience you can’t help but be drawn into.
The key to the song is the phrase “For this life, I cannot change,” which he opens the song with. This is a key line to understanding the nature of the butterfly effect to Travis, but there are two ways to interpret this part. The first way to read it is: “For (this) life, I cannot change,” or “I cannot change for life.” This sounds like Travis is saying that if he wanted his life a certain way, he wouldn’t be able to make it so. If his life is a reflection of his choices and actions, then if he chose or acted a certain way, his life would change. But Travis denies this. Instead this actually implies the reverse — which is: The way his life is affects and decides the outcomes he himself chooses. Aka the butterfly effect.”
The article blew my mind. All, well most of us, love this song. This explanation and relation to “The Butterfly Effect,” only makes me like it more. I had never thought about the song this way until tonight!! Did y’all???
Here is the source to read the full article: https://medium.com/@Fred.Ness/where-is-the-butterfly-effect-in-scotts-butterfly-effect-d96451c25c4c
Dear Brandon,
I disagree.
With great greatness,
King TDS I
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