Originally Posted by
desiresjab
What bugs you, perhaps, is that it works in models, it works in simulations. When some parameters are tweaked ever so slightly, they produce major changes in the behavior of the simulation down the line, and hence the name of the effect because the butterfly flapping its wings in south America is responsible for a hurricane off Florida two weeks later. This is merely a metaphor to illustrate how sensitive models of chaotic systems are to slight changes in initial conditions, weather systems being chaotic. If you have never read a book on chaos theory, you should read Gleick. Chaos is no longer described as random. There is a certain amount of order in chaos, a kind of predictability but not determinism. I know you are a well read fellow, and have probably read this author. What I cannot understand is why you would not have sucked up these ideas for use in your own theory, since they seem a good fit. Chaos is the medium lying somewhere between full determinism and full randomness. That is the same medium you say we are in.