Chaos: Making a New Science

One of the most important concepts to understand within the field of chaos theory, the “butterfly effect”—scientifically known as “sensitive dependence on initial conditions”—describes “the way small scales intertwined with large” (23). For example, small changes in weather in one region impact the forecast across a continent. Edward Lorenz determined that the butterfly effect was not only useful for understanding these changing patterns but also “necessary.” That is, without the workings of the butterfly effect, the planet would not have the rich and varied weather patterns that produce different species of flora and fauna. The flourishing of nature itself depends upon it.

The butterfly effect applies to other areas of chaos science too. In Mitchell Fiegenbaum’s theories of universality, for example, the “tiny changes in certain features [that] lead to remarkable changes in overall behavior” (178) are crucial to interpreting the equations across different scales. Likewise, within biological and ecological systems, the butterfly effect is almost always in play. It operates the same way everywhere: “[T]he laws of pattern formation are universal” (311). Ultimately, as the author emphasizes, “[s]ensitive dependence on initial conditions serves not to destroy but to create” (311), contrary to what popular disaster movies might imply.