Tuesday, May 09, 2006

The (Anti) Butterfly Effect In Its Full Horror

I have tended to believe in the butterfly effect in every form. Sure the mathematical meaning is quite different but I also tend to appreciate and would like to believe its populist version: That a butterfly flapping its wings in China can affect the wheat production in Indonesia and cause thunderstorms in other parts of the World etc.

In fact I would like to take a step further and ask what if the corollary is also true ? Can it be possible that a butterfly that was supposed to flap its wings in China to keep the World order going failed to do so and that led to a horrible disaster like the tsunami in Indonesia ?? Quite plausible ain't it ?

Tangentially does the butterfly effect apply in time as it does in space ? Can the flapping of a wings (or lack of it) by a butterfly in Indonesia today affect the occurence or non-occurence of a tsunami some 2000 years in the future ?

Don't they say that words that once leave your mouth, you cannot control and can come back to haunt you in the future ?? Don't they say "Speech is silver, silence is golden." ?? All very fine but IMO paints a very one sided picture. What they fail to tell you is that what you did not say some time in the past may come back to horribly haunt you in the future and mess up the rest of your life. I have today been firmly convinced by what someone said at my graduation ceremony last year - "You will always regret more what you did not do than what you did".

Butterflies all over the World, flap your wings, at least that way no matter what the consequences you will not be left with the regret of what if.

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