Herding Cats and Chaos Theory

Abstract

Edward Lorenz, a quiet assistant professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, once demonstrated that a seemingly innocuous change in one of twelve weather parameters, and of a magnitude well less than one part in a thousand, could change his model predictions dramatically. His observation, entitled “The Butterfly Effect” demonstrated that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas.⁷¹

A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has first destroyed itself from within.

(William James “Will” Durant, historian, 1885–1981)