BUTTERFLY EFFECT AND PEOPLE - SEEKING ORDER

We people tend to order everything. We are wired to see patterns and tend to describe them in structural language or mathematics. (The language of patterns)

We people tend to follow these rules in life:

* Better measure means better prediction means better control.
* Small causes have small consequences.
* More and better order (regularity) is healthier.

To understand the dynamics of large systems we need to know all the factors that play a role in it and we can make predictions.

CHAOS EVERYWHERE: THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

However, the above is not true. When we began to study weather and economics, it was impossible to find direct patterns. Scientist began to create computer simulations and began to see chaos but also underlying order in the chaos. The weather and stock market could not be predicted by looking at the larger picture. Even a small butterfly could cause a storm…

A new theory was born in the form of the chaos theory. It described that many processes are run by unpredictable factors and are determent by the initial conditions. The initial conditions set a dynamic system in motion and many small influences (butterflies) create very noticeable large-scale consequence (like storms) in the big system. (Like weather)

SOCIAL SYSTEMS

However, this is also true for social systems! One person can have a huge effect overall organization. Organizations are thus also controlled by chaos theory systems. We people can also work as butterflies and cause huge effects. Look into our history and notice some legendary people that were some unnoticeable persons at first. By coincidence, they could have huge effect on our whole society and history. Their actions cannot be recreated to form the same legendary figure. It is all about timing and the initial conditions.

Nevertheless, why do we try to look deterministic to our social systems? A system that is ruled by a rigid top down structure cannot easily adapt for weather changes. By top down determination, you dumb down all the factors that are really running the social process. It can be run by procedures but you are really ignoring many factors that control a social system. Do not kill butterflies!

RUN BY CHAOS

The process should determine the organization. Chaos should be allowed. Even in chaos there seems to be order. It is true that we need to find the right initial conditions. But once in motion it will adapt much faster by human passion and drive.

Don’t dumb down the process into easy schematic concepts! You will kill a lot of potential. We should favor adaptive organizations and design. The chaos theory could deliver some key insights in this new age.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The butterfly effect is a term used in Chaos Theory to describe how tiny variations can affect giant systems, and complex systems, like weather patterns. The term butterfly effect was applied in Chaos Theory to suggest that the wing movements of a butterfly might have significant repercussions on wind strength and movements throughout the weather systems of the world, and theoretically, could cause tornadoes halfway around the world.
What the butterfly effect seems to posit, is that the prediction of the behavior of any large system is virtually impossible unless one could account for all tiny factors, which might have a minute effect on the system. Thus large systems like weather remain impossible to predict because there are too many unknown variables to count.
The term "butterfly effect" is attributed to Edward Norton Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist, who was one of the first proponents of Chaos Theory. Though he had been working on the theory for some ten years, with the principal question as to whether a seagulls’ wing movements changes the weather, he changed to the more poetic butterfly in 1973.
A speech he delivered was titled, “Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas.” Actually, fellow scientist, Philip Merilees created the title. Lorenz had failed to provide a title for his speech.
The concept of small variations producing the butterfly effect actually predates science and finds its home in science fiction. Writers like Ray Bradbury were particularly interested in the types of problems that might occur if one traveled back in time, trailing anachronisms. Could small actions taken in the past dramatically affect the future?

In human behavior, one can certainly see how small changes could render behavior, or another complex system, extremely unpredictable. Small actions or experiences stored in the unconscious mind, could certainly affect a person’s behavior in unexpected ways.
Whether used in science, fiction, or social sciences, the butterfly effect remains theory. However, it does seem a reasonable explanation for the unpredictability of events. As it relates to human behavior, it does suggest that even the smallest actions may have huge consequences for good or ill.

Butterfly Stories The Shoshone "Ladies Fancy Shawl Dance"

Many, many years ago when the Earth was still quite new, there was a beautiful butterfly who lost her mate in battle. To show her grief, she took off her beautiful wings and wrapped herself in a drab cocoon. In her sadness, she could not eat and she could not sleep and her relatives kept coming to her lodge to see if she was okay.
Of course she wasn't, but she didn't want to be a burden on her people so she packed up her wings and her medicine bundle and took off on a long journey. She wandered about for many days and months, until finally she had gone all around the world.
On her journey she kept her eyes downcast and stepped on each stone she came to as she crossed fields and creeks and streams. Finally, one day as she was looking down, she happened to notice the stone beneath her feet, and it was so beautiful that it healed her sorrow.

She then cast aside her cocoon, shook the dust from her wings, and donned them once more. She was so happy she began to dance to give thanks for another chance to begin her life anew. Then she went home and told The People about her long journey and how it had healed her.
To this day,The People dance this dance as an expression of renewal, and to give thanks for new seasons, new life, and new beginnings.

The shawl in the Fancy Shawl Dance represents the butterfly's wings, the fancy steps and twirls represent the butterfly's style of flight. This is another reason you will sometimes hear the Fancy Shawl Competition Dance referred to as " the butterfly dance."

Butterfly Stories - Mayans in Guatemala and blue butterfly

Tzutujil Mayans in Guatemala speak of simultaneous Twin Realities: the world of dreams and the world of work. These worlds are likened to the opposing wings of a Butterfly: the dream world is one wing, and the awake world is the other.

 

They believe the wings must connect at the Heart for the Butterfly to fly and live. 

Real life occurs because of the interaction of the wings. The Life is the Butterfly's Heart. Life, like the Butterfly's Heart, is kept alive by the two opposing, mirroring twinlike wings. 

Butterfly Stories - Papago Tribe

One day the Creator was resting, sitting, watching some children at play in a village. The children laughed and sang, yet as he watched them, the Creator's heart was sad. He was thinking: These children will grow old.
Their skin will become wrinkled. Their hair will turn gray. Their teeth fall out. The young hunters arm will fail. These lovely young girls will grow ugly and fat. The playful puppies will become blind mangy dogs. And those wonderful flowers-yellow and blue, red and purple-will fade. The leaves from the trees will fall and dry up. Already they are turning yellow.
Thus the Creator grew sadder and sadder. It was in the fall, and the thought of the coming winter, with its cold and lack of game and green things, made his heart heavy. Yet it was still warm, and the sun was shining. The Creator watched the play of sunlight and shadow on the ground, the yellow leaves being carried here and there by the wind. He saw the blueness of the sky, the whiteness of some cornmeal ground by the women.
Suddenly he smiled All those colors, they ought to be preserved.
I'll make something to gladden my heart, something for these children to look at and enjoy. The Creator took out his bag and started gathering things: a spot of sunlight, a handful of blue from the sky, the whiteness of the cornmeal, the shadow of playing children the blackness of a beautiful girls hair, the yellow of the falling leaves, the green of the pine needles, the red, purple, and orange of the flowers around him.
All these he put into his bag.
As an afterthought, he put the songs of the birds in, too.
Then he walked over to the grassy spot where the children were playing. Children, little children, this is for you, and he gave them his bag.
Open it; there's something nice inside, he told them.
The children opened the bag, and at once hundreds and hundreds of colored butterflies flew out, dancing around the children's heads, settling on their hair, fluttering up again to sip from this or that flower.
And the children, enchanted, said that they had never seen anything so beautiful.
The butterflies began to sing, and children listened smiling.
But then a songbird came flying, settling on the Creators shoulder, scolding him, saying: Its not right to give our songs to these new pretty things.
You told us when you made us that every bird would have his own song. And now you've passed them all around. Isn't it enough that you gave your new playthings the colors of the rainbow?
You're right, said the Creator. I made one song for each bird, and I shouldn't have taken what belongs to you.

So the Creator took the songs away from the butterflies, and that's why they are silent. They're beautiful even so! he said.

If anyone desires a wish to come true they must first capture a butterfly and whisper that wish to it. Since a butterfly can make no sound, the butterfly can not reveal the wish to anyone but the Great Spirit who hears and sees all. In gratitude for giving the beautiful butterfly its freedom, the Great Spirit always grants the wish. So, according to legend, by making a wish and giving the butterfly its freedom, the wish will be taken to the heavens and be granted.