The Butterfl-AI Effect and the Repercussions of Progress

The Butterfly Effect is the theory where one small change in the starting condition of an event can have a monumental effect on the outcome of such an event. The term was coined by Edward Lorenz and is derived from the metaphorical example of the details of a tornado being influenced by minor effects of the flapping of wings of a distant butterfly several weeks earlier. Lorenz discovered the effect in 1961 when he was running a numerical computer model to redo a weather prediction. The result was a dramatically different weather scenario. Interestingly, he did this on a computer.