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Butterfly effect in popular culture

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The butterfly effect is the phenomenon in chaos theory whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome. The butterfly metaphor was created by Edward Norton Lorenz to emphasize the inherent unpredictable results of small changes in the initial conditions of certain physical systems. The concept was taken up by popular culture, and interpreted to mean that each event could be explained by some small cause, or that small events have a rippling effect that causes much larger events to take place.[1]

Examples

Ray Bradbury's 1952 short story A Sound of Thunder, which explores the concept of how the death of a butterfly in the past could have drastic changes in the future is a representation of the butterfly effect, and used as an example of how to consider chaos theory and the physics of time travel.[2] The story was made into a film of the same name, an episode of the television series Ray Bradbury Theater, and its influence can be seen in the film The Terminator, the short story "Kamikaze Butterflies", and an episode of the television series The Simpsons.[citation needed] "My Butterfly", an episode from the TV show Scrubs, also features two separate timelines, each influenced by a butterfly.[citation needed] The Butterfly Effect was also mentioned in The Amazing World Of Gumball in which a butterfly is let out of a jar which causes a series of events leading to a tornado.[citation needed]

Also in 1952, John Steinbeck illustrates the butterfly effect in his best-selling novel East of Eden: "The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path or a breath caught at sight of a pretty girl or a fingernail nicked in the garden soil" (Chapter 4, paragraph 2).

The films The Butterfly Effect and Havana mischaracterize the butterfly effect in the typical fashion of its pop-culture understanding, according to writer Peter Dizikes, asserting that the butterfly effect can be calculated with certainty, which is the opposite of its meaning in chaos theory about the unpredictability of certain physical systems.[1] Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Ian Malcolm from the 1993 movie Jurassic Park attempts to explain chaos theory to Laura Dern's character, Dr. Ellie Sattler, specifically using the butterfly effect as an example.[3] Terry Pratchett's novel Interesting Times tells of the magical "Quantum Weather Butterfly", who has the ability to manipulate weather patterns.[4] The 2009 film Mr. Nobody also delves into the concept of smaller choices, that inevitably result in larger changes that alter a person's life.[citation needed]

In William Tenn's short story Brooklyn Project, a tyrannical US Government brushes aside the warnings of scientists about the dangers of time travel and goes on with a planned experiment - with the result that minor changes to the prehistoric past cause Humanity to never have existed, its place taken by tentacled underwater intelligent creatures - who also have a tyrannical government which also insists on experimenting with time-travel.[5]

The Indian films Dasavathaaram,Super Deluxe and Nannaku Prematho are mainly based on the concept of Butterfly effect.

In Nick Hancock and Chris England's 1997 book What Didn't Happen Next: An Alternative History of Football it is suggested that, had Gordon Banks been fit to play in the 1970 FIFA World Cup quarter-final, there would have been no Thatcherism and the post-war consensus would have continued indefinitely.[6][page needed]

The 2015 video game Until Dawn features the butterfly effect as a central plot point, using the term to describe how the player's choices can drastically affect the outcome of the game's events.

The video game Life Is Strange, also released in 2015, makes multiple references to the butterfly effect and also uses it to describe how the player's choices heavily affects to the plot of the game.

Hip-hop artist Travis Scott mentions this phenomenon in his 2017 single Butterfly Effect.[citation needed]

In Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, the Butterfly Effect is referred to as the Banana Cream Pie Paradox.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Dizikes, Petyer (8 June 2008). "The meaning of the butterfly". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  2. ^ Flam, Faye (2012-06-15). "The Physics of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2015-09-02.
  3. ^ Clader, Emily (13 August 2014). "Did chaos cause mayhem in Jurassic Park?". Plus Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  4. ^ Stewart, Ian (23 March 2015). "Five Things Discworld Will Teach You About Science". IFL Science. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  5. ^ Jonas, Gerald (13 February 2010). "William Tenn, Science Fiction Author, Is Dead at 89". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  6. ^ Hancock, Nick; England, Chris (1997). What Didn't Happen Next: Nick Hancock's Alternative History of Football. London: Chameleon. ISBN 023399291X.
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