Butterfly Effect

The idea of time travel is always an interesting conversation. What era would you want to live in? What would it be like to be a Pharaoh of Egypt? What about the Emperor of the Roman Empire? Would you like to be a Pirate sailing the seas of the Caribbean? What about being a passenger on George Washington’s boat crossing the Delaware River? What about trekking across the United States with Lewis and Clark or during the gold rush of the 1840s? What about existing during the age of Dinosaurs? Could you imagine hiking through the Everglades for the first time with Conquistadors and stumbling upon a giant alligator in the swamp? What about moving to the future? Would you want to see a world that is completely sustainable with flying cars or would you warp to a dystopian nuclear wasteland? There are so many, countless, different ideas and time periods that these conversations lead to. Time travel is a topic filled with wonder and awe about what could be possible. While time travel is not a current reality, and may never be a reality, the Butterfly effect of choices is very real.

In chaos theory, the Butterfly Effect is the idea that even the smallest change in the state of something can cause an extremely large change later in time. Going back in time and stomping on a butterfly could potentially lead to a different outcome in a future war. Stomping on that butterfly could cause a domino effect of events leading to cataclysmic outcomes. The point of the Butterfly Effect is one string of decisions leads to another. In Back to the Future II, Biff Tannen gave his younger self a sports almanac with every major result from 1950 to 2000. Upon returning to the year 1985, Doc and Marty find that Biff had become very wealthy as a result of this decision. One small change led to large outcome differences.

Moving away from the concept of time travel, the Butterfly Effect presents itself in our lives frequently. Imagine where you were a year ago, then 5 years ago, what has changed? What small decisions ended up shaping the future of your life? Did you pick one college over the other? Did you decide not to go on a vacation that you always regretted? Did you decide to go to a bar the night you met your wife? Did you send a random message to someone who ended up directing your career path? Small changes and small decisions will carry a domino effect down the line. Do not be afraid of taking chances, of starting small, or of changing your course. Your future self is a result of the choices you made yesterday, last year, and today. One decision follows the other.