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CSflim · 10-02-2003, 01:15 PM

Make way for everyone's favourite popular mathematical statement:

A butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo, causes a tornado in California.

Chaos theory. Should this fact inspire you do run around with a flamethrower, attemping to exterminate all of the evil tornado acusing butterflies? No, of course not! Any mathematician will quickly inform you of your misunderstanding of the principle.

A butterfly will "prevent" a tornado just as often as it "causes" one. Hence killing butterflies will have precisely no effect on stopping tornados.

If you are faced with a situation of save boy who cannot pay for treatment, or leave him to rot, you can weigh up your options in statistical terms fairly easily:

The thought occurs to you "maybe I shouldn't save him, he may grow up to be a ruthless dictator"

Well how many people in the last few hundred years have actually been a ruthless dictator? A handful. How many peole have truned out to be normal members of society? A couple of billion.
Therefore the odds of this boy turning into a maniacal killer are infinitismal, so your decision to save the boy should not be impaired by this possibility.

10-02-2003, 01:15 PM	#14 (permalink)
CSflim Sky Piercer Location: Ireland	Make way for everyone's favourite popular mathematical statement: A butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo, causes a tornado in California. Chaos theory. Should this fact inspire you do run around with a flamethrower, attemping to exterminate all of the evil tornado acusing butterflies? No, of course not! Any mathematician will quickly inform you of your misunderstanding of the principle. A butterfly will "prevent" a tornado just as often as it "causes" one. Hence killing butterflies will have precisely no effect on stopping tornados. If you are faced with a situation of save boy who cannot pay for treatment, or leave him to rot, you can weigh up your options in statistical terms fairly easily: The thought occurs to you "maybe I shouldn't save him, he may grow up to be a ruthless dictator" Well how many people in the last few hundred years have actually been a ruthless dictator? A handful. How many peole have truned out to be normal members of society? A couple of billion. Therefore the odds of this boy turning into a maniacal killer are infinitismal, so your decision to save the boy should not be impaired by this possibility. __________________ Last edited by CSflim; 10-02-2003 at 03:44 PM..