AdamL
Registered: Jul 2007
Posts: 11 |
Butterfly Effect answered in NKS?
Sorry if this has been said elsewhere, I did a search and didn't see a thread on it. The question is - does NKS answer the "butterfly effect" with a fairly reliable "No"? The section on how initial parameters in a system (CA) showed how those inputs would be dissolved in the quality of the movement in the system even over a fairly short time. This suggested to me that Wolfram had figured out that at least according to his models, the characteristics of the system were not linear but existed at different levels which were characterized by their prior states but not strictly determined by them. That is, that the behaviour in a complex CA was more to do with the rules than the starting conditions. Then he also discovers that not only are the qualities of the system more a function of the rules than initial parameters but also that even the materials of the system were relatively unimportant. Continuous vs. discreet even is conquered. The cause of what you see is the ruleset, not the "stuff". And then it's pretty startling when the rules themselves aren't that diverse in form.
So then, I'd have to think that in this case if our fluid atmosphere were to be anything like a CA as a function of rules rather than initial conditions or materials, then the butterfly flapping it's wings would be an input like an initial condition into a system and wouldn't matter after a small number of "steps".
Sorry if this is silly or well known already, I'm not a scientist and this stuff is sorta new.
Last edited by AdamL on 12-04-2007 at 12:17 AM
Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged
|
12-03-2007 10:53 PM
