So you know, the butterfly effect is the idea that a small change in a system can cause large long-term changes and depending on what and when and where the small change occurs, the effects will be different?

Well I was thinking the other day about how when I was in third year, and I had to choose a supervisor for my honours project, I chose the fourth year coordinator who I had had as a lecturer and tutor and I thought would be pretty helpful. Anyway, she turned out to be all those things and as well, encouraged me to apply for a PhD scholarship instead of doing a masters which had always been my plan. As a result of this, I met a lot of people I probably would not have met, including two people who I now call very close friends who were my officemates, as I wouldn't have had an office doing a masters. I also got the scholarship which meant that I was able to afford to move out of home, meaning that my internship year, which was hellishly busy, was way more manageable than it otherwise would have been. So from that one decision, a whole lot of things happened which either would not have happened at all, or would have happened differently or at different times.

Of course now I have to actually do the PhD, which is irksome ;)

So, my own personal butterfly effect. What's yours?

Getting sick. While we are still scrambling to find out what's wrong, we at least know that the literally killer causes aren't it. However, becoming sick enough that I couldn't leave my house resulted in my website, and my music getting out to the world. While the ground shaking effects are non-existent, Z is using one of my pieces for the Undermountain module, in the tribute to Animal area, I believe. To me, this is the ultimate in both exposure, and compliment. If any one is interested, the piece, entitled "Tribute" is available for download at my site. There is a link in my sig. Going to have a hard time getting me out of that module after that area is done, as NWN's and my music are my two favorite things.

Cool stories. But every dission we make can be based on the BE. Or is it fate. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Either way. So far so good I think?

The sum of our actions is the present and the future...

Mine is probably from my first week of uni. we had to do this stupid computer thing (this is called a 'keyboard', and this is a 'mouse') jsut in case anyone attending unoi had lived in a cave for the last 600 years....

anyway, this girls computer didnt work, so she had to share with me. We got talking etc.... and now, she is my wife!

although i am not so sure this is the butterfly effect of the she-cant-use-a-computer-effect, althoguh either works for me!

I'm not sure either, but the words "way cool" come to mind...

No, I don't agree. Most decisions don't have much if any impact on anything else. The fact that I decided to have a bagel this morning instead of cornbread is not going to have any impact on anything - nothing is going to happen or not happen that would be different than if I'd made a different decision. I'm talking about insignificant decisions that you can pinpoint as having lead to unexpected and unrelated effects much later. Choosing my supervisor was a minor decision - my honours performance would not really have been affected with a different supervisor. But that decision did affect what people I met more than a year later. And when I moved out of home! Big effects from a small unrelated decision.

And I don't believe in fate. My destiny is determined by me. And luck, I suppose.

hmmm.

A friend that was flying out to see, kiss and cuddle, me misplaced his passport, which he needed, he called his dad to change the flight, because they'd used his credit card because it was a last minute deal. His dad told him he didn't need a passport to fly over to see me, but I'd already checked and told my friend he needed it, so an argument ensued.

His father refused to give the information needed to book a later flight, so my friend didn't come over to kiss and cuddle.

Because he didn't come over I got really down, and went out to see two friends that I'd not met before in another city, they liked how the meetup went and so one of them planned a bigger meetup of more internet friends.

I went to this big meetup and met Alex and his friend Laura, Alex went home early and laura stayed and got passing out drunk.

Since we lived in the same city I dragged her home, this made Alex and her like me better, see me as a better friend.

Because of this I metup with alex again and we spent six hours talking.

Because of this we fell head over heels for each other, but neither of us was willing to put ourselves "out there".

I went home and wrote a text message to alex, which I tagged on the end the fact that I liked him, which I was going to delete, but hit the wrong button (send and delete right next to each other, what wonderful design)

Because that text got sent we realised we liked each other, and quickly discovered how much so.

Because that one friend couldn't find his passport I met the man that became my fiancé

No, I don't agree. Most decisions don't have much if any impact on anything else. The fact that I decided to have a bagel this morning instead of cornbread is not going to have any impact on anything - nothing is going to happen or not happen that would be different than if I'd made a different decision. I'm talking about insignificant decisions that you can pinpoint as having lead to unexpected and unrelated effects much later. Choosing my supervisor was a minor decision - my honours performance would not really have been affected with a different supervisor. But that decision did affect what people I met more than a year later. And when I moved out of home! Big effects from a small unrelated decision.

And I don't believe in fate. My destiny is determined by me. And luck, I suppose. </font>[/QUOTE]Interesting but you'll never know the impact that your decision to go with a different supervisor would have made.

Every decision has an impact even something as simple as deciding to have a bagel instead of cornbread but you may not see the impact of that decision.

How?

Perhaps that decision to purchase a bagel instead of cornbread was the deciding factor for the operator of the local shop to stop ordering cornbread because it wasn't selling very well. That baker of the cornbread was counting on that order to pay mortgage/feed kids etc...Now that he doesn't have the order he can't keep his bakery open and must close the doors, declaring bankruptcy. You're decision to have a bagel, while insignificant in your life had a profound impact on that baker.

To throw even more confusion your way

Are you sure that your destiny is determined by you? Perhaps every decision you've ever made and ever will make is pre-determined? Maybe your life is mapped out from the day you're born to the day you die?

Lot's of maybe's and what if's but I can guarantee one thing: Your brain <u>will</u> start to hurt if you think about this too much! :D

I have always wanted to write a book or something about this; like a guy wakes up in the morning and, i dunno, spills his coffee over himself, so he is pissed off and says something dumb to his wife or something, which upsets her, so she gets shitty when someone cuts her off on the way ot work...

basically each chapter is a different person who is affected by the person before. It would be set over one day and hopefully go all over the world, before returning to the guy that started it all.

i am a useless writer tho...

met my girlfriend. [img]smile.gif[/img] thats a good butterfly effect.

lemme see...

choosing which university to go to meeting my good mates who liked martial arts and i met my girl in the club org for martial arts. Thats like 2 years in the making [img]smile.gif[/img]

there is a movie butterfly effect which i would recommend you guys would watch. its a australian movie. [img]smile.gif[/img]

No, I don't agree. Most decisions don't have much if any impact on anything else. The fact that I decided to have a bagel this morning instead of cornbread is not going to have any impact on anything - nothing is going to happen or not happen that would be different than if I'd made a different decision. I'm talking about insignificant decisions that you can pinpoint as having lead to unexpected and unrelated effects much later. Choosing my supervisor was a minor decision - my honours performance would not really have been affected with a different supervisor. But that decision did affect what people I met more than a year later. And when I moved out of home! Big effects from a small unrelated decision.

And I don't believe in fate. My destiny is determined by me. And luck, I suppose. </font>[/QUOTE]Interesting but you'll never know the impact that your decision to go with a different supervisor would have made.

</font>[/QUOTE]Yes, of course. Certain things that might have happened if I'd had a different supervisor obviously didn't happen since I made this decision. However, I know (not completely definitively of course, but as much as you can know about things that didn't happen) that things would have turned out differently because, as a result of that decision, I changed my mind about doing certain things (e.g., doing a phd instead of a masters) that I had always intended to do, and can assume that I would have done had I not made this one decision.

Well perhaps. Although I make the cornbread myself and I have already made it - it is in the freezer. I had the bagels and the cornbread - they will all get eaten eventually so the net result is the same. So the poor old baker can rest easy since I will just eat the cornbread tomorrow [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Point taken, however. Although, I think what I am getting at with this thread is where you can be sure of how small decisions lead to unrelated outcomes in the long-term future that could not have been predicted when the original decision was made. As opposed to speculating wildly about what *might* have happened as a result of some action which of course we could do about anything and is fairly silly and pointless, IMHO, of course ;) .

Of course I'm not absolutely sure - I said I don't believe in fate, not that I know for certain that it doesn't exist. However, the idea of fate is one that does not appeal to me in the slightest, as well as not making logical sense as far as I can fathom it, so I am happy to go on believing it doesn't exist [img]smile.gif[/img]

Is that the one with Ashton Kutcher? I know he was in a movie about this. If so, I might pass. I could not find him more of a dick :D

im for the content not the actors :D . and your right he can be a dick but in this movie he aint that bad

Hmm, for me that would be deciding to add a name to my ICQ list from a (now defunct) forum I was modding on at the time. Was just a spur of the moment thing, the new member had been on the board for a day or two and we'd posted in same threads a few times, so I was replying to things in a thread he was in and saw his icq button was active and added him to my list.

Ended up talking to him as he was online when the message came to accept or reject me on his friends list and he asked who I was (my nick was different on ICQ than on the board). We talked all night and since I was on vacation, we talked all night for several nights running.

That was about 5 yrs ago and the person I added was Nachtrafe, the man I ended up marrying two years ago! [img]smile.gif[/img] Kinda glad I added that icq addy that night. [img]graemlins/ladyhearts.gif[/img]

I heard the movie was terrible... and it doesn't seem to be about much. Guess the only way to find out is to see it though.

First off, a recommendation:

Sliding Doors: a movie that explores the effects of a woman just making a train or barely missing it and having to wait for the next one. The movie switches back and forth between the two storylines. It's interesting.


As for my own example, I often wonder how my life would have been had opted to stay in high school for my senior year rather than take an early-acceptance program in S. California. I had not even considered this particular school before they contacted me, and I doubt I would have applied to them had I stayed in high school, since I was in Michigan, and would have been able to apply to plenty of schools that weren't so far away.

While the decision of whether to attend college or finish out my senior year of high school was a big one at the time, I can trace it back to the decision to fill out the application (which at the time seemed more like a chance to practice for the real college applications the next year). I never expected to get accepted. Later, I found out that the only reason the school recruited me was because I took the PSAT test as a sophomore. Deciding to do that was even more trivial. I found out one of my friends was taking it early for practice, so I asked if I could too.

Without that, I wouldn't have moved to S. California, decided to do a PhD in earthquake research, met my wife, etc.

I hate Ashton Kutcher but the movie was kind of good... he is even pretty good in it...

Anyway, my butterfly effect would be when I was in university, I always took a bus home and one day I was writing a essay I had to return the next day, got cought up in it and missed the last bus home, so I called my sister and asked if I could sleep on her couch, which was okey but she asked me to make a stop in a shop and get some candy to munch on my way there so I went into a open all nite gasstation, saw a girl who was with me in one of the classes, and we started talking, I totally forgot about the candy but the next day we started our very long and very great relationship... which unfortunatly ended last fall (as a results of another butterfly effect I'm sure), but we are still pretty good friends...