the butterfly effect presentation

7/27/2019 The Butterfly Effect Presentation

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The ButterflyEffect


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The Butterfly Effect

is a 2004American

science

fiction

psychological thriller

filmthat was written and direc

ted

by

Eric

Bress

and

J.

MackyeGruber, starring

Ashton

Kutcher

and

Amy Smart. The titlerefers to t

he

butterfly effect, apopular

hypothetical example

of

chaos theory

which illustrateshow small initi

al differences may

lead to large unforeseen

consequences over time.


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Butterfly effect

In

chaos theory

, the

butterflyeffect

is the

sensitive dependence

on initial c

onditions

in which asmall change at one

place in a

deterministic

nonlinear system

canresult in large differences in a

later

state. The name of the effect,

coined by

Edward Lorenz, is

derived f

rom the theoretical

example of a hurricane's formation

being contingent on whether or not

a distant butterfly had flapped its

wings several weeks earlier.


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CHAOS THEORY

Chaos theory

is a field of studyin

mathematics, witha

pplications in several

disciplines

including

meteorology,

physics,engineering, economic

s

andbiology. Chaos theory s

tudies

the

behaviour

of

dynamical

systems

that are highlysensiti

ve to initial conditions,

an effect which is popularly

referred to as the

butterfly

effect

.


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CHAOS THEORY

Small differences in initial

conditions yield widely diverging

outcomes for such dynamical

systems, rendering long

-

term

prediction impossible

in

general.

This happens even thoughthese s

ystems are deterministic,

meaning that their future behavior

is fully determined by their initial

conditions, with

no

random

elements involved.

Inother words, the deterministi

c

nature of these systems does not

make them predictable.


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Butterfly effect in

popular culture

The

butterfly effect

is thephenomenon wh

ereby a

minor change incirc

umstances can cause a

large change in outcome.


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Butterfly effect inpopular culture

The term is sometimes used in popularmedia dealing with the idea of timetravel, usually inaccurately. Most timetravel depictions simply fail to addressbutterfly effects. According to the actual

theory, if history could be "changed" atall (so that one is not invoking somethinglike the Novikov self-consistencyprinciple which would ensure a fixed self-

consistent timeline), the mere presenceof the time travelers in the past would beenough to change short-term events(such as the weather) and would also havean unpredictable impact on the distantfuture.


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Butterfly effect in

popular culture

Therefore, no one who travelsinto the past could ever return

to the same version of realityhe or she had come from andcould have therefore not beenable to travel back in time in

the first place, which wouldcreate a phenomenon knownas time paradox.


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MOVIE: THE PLOTEvan Treborn frequently suffers

from blackouts, often at moments ofhigh stress. As a young child andadolescent, Evan suffered many severesexual and psychological traumas. Thesetraumas include being coerced to takepart in child pornography by neighbourGeorge Miller, Kayleigh and Tommysfather; being nearly strangled to death byhis institutionalized, mentally ill father,

Jason Treborn who is then killed in frontof him by guards. Various accidents(including the killing of an infant) whileplaying with dynamite with his friends;and seeing his dog being burned alive by

Tommy, also marked his life.


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MOVIE: THE PLOTSeven years later, while entertaining a girl

in his dorm room, he realizes that when hereads from his adolescent journals, hecan travel back in time and is able to redoparts of his past. His time travellingepisodes account for the frequent blackoutshe experienced as a child. However, thereare consequences to his revised choices ofearly actions that propagate forward in timeto his present life. For example, editing hispersonal time-line leads to alternate futuresin which he finds himself, variously, acollege student in a fraternity, an inmateimprisoned for murdering Tommy, and anamputee.


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MOVIE: THE PLOTHis efforts are driven by the desire to undo the most

unpleasant events of his childhood which coincidewith his mysterious blackouts, including savingKayleigh from being molested by her father and frombeing tormented by her brother Tommy. The actionshe takes, and enables others to take during his

blackouts, change the timeline in each new futurewhere he awakes. As he continues to do this, herealizes that, even though his intentions are good, hisactions have unforeseen consequences. Moreover, theassimilation of dozens of years' worth of new

memories from the alternate timelines causes himbrain damage and severe nosebleeds. Ultimately, hedecides that his attempts to alter the past end uponly harming those he cares about, and realizes thatthe main cause of everyone's suffering in all thedifferent timelines is himself.


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PostmodernCharacteristics

Temporal distortionAnachronic narrationis when the timewithin a story is told out of order. This isdiscontinuous timeand lacks temporal

continuity; it is non-linear narration.ParanoiaMany postmodern authors write underthe assumption that modern society

cannot be explained or understood. Fromthat point of view, any apparentconnections or controlling influences onthe chaos of society would be very

frightening.


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Magical realismThe introduction of fantastic orimpossible elements into a narrativethat is otherwise normal. Magical

realist novels may include dreamstaking place during normal life,extremely complicated plots, wild shiftsin time, etc.

IntertextualityAn important element of

postmodernism is its acknowledgmentof previous literary works.


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FragmentationFragmentation in modernist literature is

thematic, as well as formal. Plot, characters,theme, images, and narrative form itself arebroken.

IntertextualityAn important element of postmodernism isits acknowledgment of previous literaryworks. The intertextuality of certain worksof postmodern fiction, the dependence on

literature that has been created earlier.The name of the film The Butterfly EffectThe Butterfly Effect's premise is borrowed

from Ray Bradbury's famous short story "ASound of Thunder.

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