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The Coffee Bean’s Butterfly Effect
Triggering revolutions, inequality, climate change, and chaos at the U.S. southern border…and beyond
Mathematicians studying chaos theory reference the butterfly effect to underscore how small events can lead to large unpredictable outcomes within complex systems. “A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can trigger a tornado weeks later in Texas” is a metaphor that, having escaped the confines of interdisciplinary math departments, flutters freely in cyberspace revealing a frequently overlooked fact. Occurrences that appear random are often interconnected.
Fittingly, just as leaves in a Brazilian rainforest teem with butterflies, the pages of history journals teem with specimens of the butterfly effect. An interwoven web of tangled historical narratives readily captures samples of the butterfly effect’s various species. Looking through the lens of history, the camouflage patterns of the Coffee Bean’s Butterfly Effect variety emerge. Examining its metamorphosis and tracing its flight path reveals the consequential developments it has triggered. Take a look.