12 Comments

It evolved to the idea of pay it forward.

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Good social example!

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Nice article! I remember that quantum physicists were also interested in this and hypothesized a "quantum butterfly effect". The theoretical basis pointed to the fact that in QM information is never lost and every action can be recovered - that is, it is based on the possible superpositions.

Finally, they decided that there can be no butterfly effect in QM. One reason is that quantum states follow a completely different set of rules, where every measurement changes the reality of things. But I have never really studied this subject, so I am sure you know more about it than I do.

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I think Hawking radiation supposedly shows that black holes lose mass over time, so no information is actually lost... but this is about the limit of my knowledge here, now. I know this is due to "virtual particles" at the event horizon, which is in turn based on superposition and QE, but that's about it! really cool stuff to think about, quantum or otherwise.

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I don't think it's been explored much in QM. But I will dig, you made me want to check it out :-)

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The curiosity torch has been passed! The cool thing is, you can light other torches with that same fire now.

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Aaah yes, the "Butterfly Effect" - famously popularized by critically-acclaimed scientist Ashton Kutcher in his eponymous movie.

Jokes aside, I do often think about this. Because even without an interconnected system of separate elements, I can certainly picture a multitude of divergent paths in my own life. Walking out of the house a second later might make me miss the neighbor I'd have otherwise met and talked to, changing my mood or the timing of my subsequent actions that day, which in turn means I might end up making a different, more momentous decision later that day, and so on it goes.

But that's also what makes it hard to actually pick the "one big thing" that altered my path.

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I'm in a similar boat. I know I stooped down to pick up a quarter one time and almost got clipped by a car! Maybe my thing was simply not to sneeze at that moment.

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Damn. That's less a butterfly effect and more of an Airbus A380! Good you're okay.

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Probably my closest call. That, or the time I got hit in the head with a baseball bat.

No, it was probably the time I landed on my head in judo.

Or maybe it was food poisoning where I thought I was going to die, around age 19.

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What you're basically saying is that Final Destination is real, and you're the protagonist?

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alt: I am Super Mario.

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