Thursday, August 10, 2006
Butterfly effect
The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system.
This is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.
The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atomosphere that ultimately cause a tornato to appear (or, for that matter, prevent a tornado from appearing).
The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.
Recurrence, the approximate return of a system towards its initial conditions, together with the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, are the two main ingredients for chaotic motion. They have the practical consequence of making complex systems, such as the weather, difficult to predict past a certain time range (approximately a week in the case of weather). ---- Wikipedia
I have a strong belief in this law of physics and mathematics as it applies in the world of social interaction. Other terms I have used to explain it is the ripple effect.
"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. " Author -- Abraham Joshua Heschel
I believe in the profound effect of kindness, especially when practiced in spontaneous, delighting acts.
How do children learn kindness?
The other day I was listening to the NPR's Infinite Mind program. The subject was empathy.
The first part of the program described the work of Frans de Waal, Our Inner Ape. It seems that it has been demonstrated that our mammalian genetic primate bloodline shows an ability to demonstrate empathy and compassion. (de Waal is working here in Atlanta at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, and food-sharing.)
Empathy? What is it?
"The capacity to know emotionally what another is experiencing from within the frame of reference of that other person, the capacity to sample the feelings of another or to put oneself in another’s shoes." -- D. M. Berger
Some say the key to empathy is to feel the feelings but remember the AS IF portion of the experience, too. It is a natural human sort of world modeling skill to recognize behavior patterns and to predict behavior based on many observational cues.
Some have postulated that this skill leads to the development of ethics and moral rules and ultimately to religion as a codification of these rules of behavior.
The other half of the radio program described a teaching program called The Roots of Empathy.
http://www.rootsofempathy.org/Home.html
Their self-definition is
Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy.
The program consists of a mother bringing in a new born baby to a 2 or 3 grade classroom over the course of a year. The students bond with the baby, learn to read the baby's emotional cues, that is, they learn empathy.
Outcomes of this learning is -- empathy development, respect for diversity, methods of learning to care for each other, inclusiveness, it pulls the parent back into the classroom as a key player, practices consensus building and collaboration, infant safety, and is anti-bullying and non-violent.
Deep in the heart of this learning is kindness. The practice of demonstrating empathy for another.
My personal practice of kindness needs to be private and personal. I get the most satisfaction from doing it this way. The old movie The Magnificent Obsession -- to give selflessly and in secret -- introduced the idea to me.
However, there is the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
http://www.actsofkindness.org/
that teaches the concepts of kindness giving in a more public way.
As I watch my grandson Nathan (2 years) interact with his brother Joshua (7 months), I see empathy growing like a little, sunlighted daisy.
Perhaps my butterfly effect (my personal reason d'
entre) at this time of my life is to help insure that learning empathy is encouraged and practiced in this house by this family.
This is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.
The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atomosphere that ultimately cause a tornato to appear (or, for that matter, prevent a tornado from appearing).
The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.
Recurrence, the approximate return of a system towards its initial conditions, together with the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, are the two main ingredients for chaotic motion. They have the practical consequence of making complex systems, such as the weather, difficult to predict past a certain time range (approximately a week in the case of weather). ---- Wikipedia
I have a strong belief in this law of physics and mathematics as it applies in the world of social interaction. Other terms I have used to explain it is the ripple effect.
"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. " Author -- Abraham Joshua Heschel
I believe in the profound effect of kindness, especially when practiced in spontaneous, delighting acts.
How do children learn kindness?
The other day I was listening to the NPR's Infinite Mind program. The subject was empathy.
The first part of the program described the work of Frans de Waal, Our Inner Ape. It seems that it has been demonstrated that our mammalian genetic primate bloodline shows an ability to demonstrate empathy and compassion. (de Waal is working here in Atlanta at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, and food-sharing.)
Empathy? What is it?
"The capacity to know emotionally what another is experiencing from within the frame of reference of that other person, the capacity to sample the feelings of another or to put oneself in another’s shoes." -- D. M. Berger
Some say the key to empathy is to feel the feelings but remember the AS IF portion of the experience, too. It is a natural human sort of world modeling skill to recognize behavior patterns and to predict behavior based on many observational cues.
Some have postulated that this skill leads to the development of ethics and moral rules and ultimately to religion as a codification of these rules of behavior.
The other half of the radio program described a teaching program called The Roots of Empathy.
http://www.rootsofempathy.org/Home.html
Their self-definition is
Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy.
The program consists of a mother bringing in a new born baby to a 2 or 3 grade classroom over the course of a year. The students bond with the baby, learn to read the baby's emotional cues, that is, they learn empathy.
Outcomes of this learning is -- empathy development, respect for diversity, methods of learning to care for each other, inclusiveness, it pulls the parent back into the classroom as a key player, practices consensus building and collaboration, infant safety, and is anti-bullying and non-violent.
Deep in the heart of this learning is kindness. The practice of demonstrating empathy for another.
My personal practice of kindness needs to be private and personal. I get the most satisfaction from doing it this way. The old movie The Magnificent Obsession -- to give selflessly and in secret -- introduced the idea to me.
However, there is the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
http://www.actsofkindness.org/
that teaches the concepts of kindness giving in a more public way.
As I watch my grandson Nathan (2 years) interact with his brother Joshua (7 months), I see empathy growing like a little, sunlighted daisy.
Perhaps my butterfly effect (my personal reason d'
entre) at this time of my life is to help insure that learning empathy is encouraged and practiced in this house by this family.
# posted by Dornar @ 5:32 AM 
