13th July 2006, 1:41 AM
Actualizing?
If you are aware of a system who's progress is highly dependant on it's initial state, then there are some things you could consider. One, do I know what the most likely results of any given initial condition would be for this state? Butterfly effect generally applies to situations where, in fact, such knowledge is either practically impossible or physically impossible to aquire. Generally though, if you limit the system to the "short run", they are less dependant on all initial conditions, making them easier to predict, these models are the only ones you can make an educated decision on.
Basically what I'm saying is if you can't have even a reasonable possibility of making an educated guess, there's nothing you can do so don't worry about it. Just worry about things you can make educated decisions on. I guess that's about as much of a philosophical viewpoint you can get out of it.
Since there is no way to know if a butterfly's wing flapping will cause or prevent a hurricane in a thousand years (it's a VERY prolonged effect, not immediate as some people seem to think), there is absolutely no basis for a decision on whether or not to stop it.
Since there's no way to determine if sending that one probe one way off into space will cause a gravitational anomaly that sends a meteor smashing into earth in a google years (well the earth and in fact the galaxy won't be around then but...), or prevent that occurance, there is no real ethical decision to make.
If you can be sure that dinosaurs being cloned WILL in fact destroy humanity, you actually have a predictable situation, one which likely has little to do with anything regarding butterfly effect as it would need to be a situation not so highly dependant on initial conditions so you could actually make a prediction. Sounds like doom and gloom of a more spiritual nature. Fun movie, but yeesh I'm not about to make ethical decisions based on fiction.
If you are aware of a system who's progress is highly dependant on it's initial state, then there are some things you could consider. One, do I know what the most likely results of any given initial condition would be for this state? Butterfly effect generally applies to situations where, in fact, such knowledge is either practically impossible or physically impossible to aquire. Generally though, if you limit the system to the "short run", they are less dependant on all initial conditions, making them easier to predict, these models are the only ones you can make an educated decision on.
Basically what I'm saying is if you can't have even a reasonable possibility of making an educated guess, there's nothing you can do so don't worry about it. Just worry about things you can make educated decisions on. I guess that's about as much of a philosophical viewpoint you can get out of it.
Since there is no way to know if a butterfly's wing flapping will cause or prevent a hurricane in a thousand years (it's a VERY prolonged effect, not immediate as some people seem to think), there is absolutely no basis for a decision on whether or not to stop it.
Since there's no way to determine if sending that one probe one way off into space will cause a gravitational anomaly that sends a meteor smashing into earth in a google years (well the earth and in fact the galaxy won't be around then but...), or prevent that occurance, there is no real ethical decision to make.
If you can be sure that dinosaurs being cloned WILL in fact destroy humanity, you actually have a predictable situation, one which likely has little to do with anything regarding butterfly effect as it would need to be a situation not so highly dependant on initial conditions so you could actually make a prediction. Sounds like doom and gloom of a more spiritual nature. Fun movie, but yeesh I'm not about to make ethical decisions based on fiction.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)