Chaos Theory

No Control- Bad Religion

Today, I will be writing about the chaos theory. Let's begin by defining our term to make it clear what it is we are discussing.

Chaos Theory- The study of unpredictable and complex dynamic systems that are highly sensitive to small changes in external conditions.

We are going to be looking at specifically the idea of chaos theory in a global sense. In this sense, chaos theory is the study of all actions and their unseen effects on our everyday lives, in other words, the butterfly effect of chaos theory.

Let me explain this more clearly. Let's say you are in the library. You've just sat down at a computer and some dust came off the seat. This makes you sneeze. Now, when most people view this scenario, they see a simple cause and effect. You needed to do something, and in return something else happened. However, chaos theory looks at the ripples of your action that you may not immediately notice.

Using our earlier scenario, you sit down at the computer and then you sneeze. However, by sneezing, you have just distracted a person from the paper they are writing on their computer. He has lost his train of thought and now looks back to his paper in hopes of regaining it. He had a great argument to write, but now he can't seem to recall what it was. So, he simply writes down a half-ass argument to support his claim. Once again, the ripples do not stop here.

By having written that half-ass argument, his final thesis is not as convincing. The student then hands in his essay and receives a 80 on his paper for not having a more supportive argument, among other reasons. Your sneeze has now cost a student a good grade. But it continues further.

That student, having received a lower grade than he expected, is now disappointed in himself. He put a lot of time into that paper and still received a bad grade. This was a very important essay and he didn't do nearly as well as he thought he would. He blames it on the teacher for being too hard on grading, and in return drops the course. By dropping the course, the student now has a lot more time for his other homework. He puts more effort into those and receives good grades accordingly.

The student may have dropped that one course, however it wasn't necessary for his degree. The students goes on to graduate at the top of his class because he did so well his first year that he had much more confidence in himself in the following years. This student gets hired by a well known company and gets paid extremely well, due to his understanding of his major.

The student becomes rich rather quickly and, having always been partial to movies, attends the first showings of many upcoming movies. However, one night as he leaves in his Ferrari, he gets hit by a drunk driver and dies immediately.

You were in the library and you needed a computer. You sat down on a chair and some dust flew into your nose, causing you to sneeze. Your sneeze goes on to kill the person across from you.

Now, you might say that there are so many other factors involved. That is absolutely true, and that is what chaos theory is. I just took a look at the butterfly effect that your sneeze had on a person's life. To look at all the butterfly effects is what chaos theory is.

So what is the best way of defining Chaos Theory?
-Shit happens.