Have you ever heard of Chaos Theory?

Me neither until today.

I'm in Borders bookstore this afternoon sipping on a cup of Houseblend and doing a little light reading ... and I randomly come across this theory. The author wrote: "Chaos theory suggests that tiny, imperceptible events, over time, are responsible for extraordinary changes that otherwise would have never occurred."

What a cool idea. This is exactly what I've been thinking about all week.

It got me all excited. Got my brain juices flowing, ya know. It's like when you're in a class or reading a book or watching TV and suddenly someone says something profound and - WHAM - it's like your mind takes off. As Oprah would say, it's an "Aha" moment. A mental "wow". All of sudden, your thoughts spring into action ... you get lost in your own head.

Sometimes, when I'm reading a book or just thinking ... and I come across something that gives me the bigger picture. Rearranges my perspective of the world. Instantly, I want to share what I've learned. Or, at the very least, talk about it.

I wanted so badly to turn to the person next to me (since I was alone) and say "Look at this! Let me tell you about what I just read. Isn't this amazing?"

But more often than not, people don't share my enthusiasm over ideas. And the closest person to me was a four year old little boy. Since he couldn't even master the basic task of putting his straw into a soda bottle, I didn't think he had much of a shot of understanding the finer points of mathematical theory.

I know. I'm a dork. But hey. I'm comfortable with my dorkiness.

Now I had to figure out what this was all about. So I did a little research on it. Manus J. Donahue III, a physists/philosophy double major at Duke University, wrote a paper explaining chaos theory. If you are so inclined, give it a look. The website is www.duke.edu/~mjd/chaos/chaos.html. I thought it was pretty clear considering I know jack squat about physics or mathematics.

But, if you don't really fancy spending your afternoon reading up on theorectical physics, I don't blame you. So this is my take on it:

From what I gather (and I'm not Einstein so I may be wrong), chaos theory is about how small, almost unnoticeable changes can have dramatic effects on an outcome.

Remember how I talked about "turning points" in my last entry? A small decision could have altered my life on a larger scale. Well, this is kinda the same thing. All chain of events "have a point of crisis that can magnify small changes." In chaos theory, these points are everywhere.

Here, I'll use the example in the paper (but I'll paraphrase):

Because there is no nail to hold it in place, the horse cannot have a horseshoe. Because there is no horseshoe, the horse cannot be ridden. Because the horse cannot be ridden, there is noone riding the horse. Because there is no rider, there is noone to deliver the message to the troops. Because there is no message, the battle is lost. Because the battle is lost, the kingdom was conquered.

So, all because there was no nail ... now, there is no kingdom. Small variations - which seem entirely disconnected - greatly altered the eventual outcome. At any point, things could have gone differently. At any point, one decision could have dramatically impacted - and changed - the conclusion.

Wow. How cool is that?

You gotta dig abstract thinking.

Anyway, of course, I apply this to my own life. And to the world. Chaos theory can be applied to explain political unrest, family dysfuction, famine, genocide, and, even, current affairs.

I mean, why are we on the verge of war? Because of small changes that eventually - without us even noticing -had greater, worldwide implicatons.

At any point things could have gone differently. If we had only stayed and helped rebuild after the Afghan war. If only our government would have acted more aggressively initially against terrorism instead of waiting until thousands died before making it a priority. If we had only listened instead of walking away. Maybe we wouldn't be in the situation we are in now.

On a personal scale, I'm sure there are decisions you've made that, without even knowing it, led to huge life-changing events. And you had no idea how important those decisions were at the time.

I've got them anyway. Tons of them. I call them "turning points". They call them "points of crisis". Whatever. It's all the same thing.

Moments of impact, so to speak.

Anyway, I just wanted to share what I found out today. I don't know if I really interpreted the theory correctly ... but even if I didn't - I like the path it took me down. I found it interesting that I stumbled across this since I've been thinking along similar lines this entire week.

Fate. It tends to sneak up when you least expect it.

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