Transcriber: haolan wu Reviewer: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka
Where were you anywhere from January to March 2020?
Some of you may have been stranded abroad,
trying to go home,
or just trying to make it through the pandemic.
Well, at the start of 2020,
I was on vacation with my family during our Chinese New Year holiday.
Things have gotten relatively bad with COVID in Shenzhen.
Therefore, my family decided to purchase tickets to fly out to Vietnam
as that is where we lived prior to moving to Shenzhen.
On the day of the flight, my sister and I woke up to news from our parents
that the borders of entry to Vietnam had been shut,
and that we were now going to Miami.
My sister and I were pretty happy
about the news
as this meant we were going to see family
that we hadn’t seen in three to four years.
Basically, we were in Miami for around a month
and returned around a month later,
just before the borders of entry to Shenzhen closed.
However, something that seems to have me thinking and sort of bothering me
is the idea of how different my life would be to this day
if my family would have booked the flight to Vietnam
a day before the border shut,
or if my family
would have not made it back on time before the borders to Shenzhen closed.
Have any of you in the audience today ever made a decision
so straightforward or small, similar to the one I just shared,
that can completely change the course of your life?
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is what we call the chaos theory.
The chaos theory or what is also commonly referred to as the “butterfly effect”
or the computer glitch
is how a small change can result in a big difference in a delayed state.
The chaos theory was originally a complicated mathematical theory,
focusing on the study of chaos,
and showing the limitations of prediction
and how some systems can be extremely sensitive
and can exactly be predicted correctly.
Similar to the weather, we can’t 100% know what the weather will be like
until a few days or hours prior.
One famous metaphor I really like
about the butterfly effect or the chaos theory
states a butterfly flapping its wings in Mexico
can cause a tornado in Texas.
Now, this poetic figure is not saying
that the butterfly has the power to directly cause the tornado.
No, what this poetic figure is trying to imply
is the flap of the butterfly’s wings can cause a tornado
as it has the power to set off multiple escalating events.
Some well-known film examples
that correlate and talk about the chaos theory
include Marvel Cinematic Universe,
show on Disney+ called “What If“ -
“What If” is showing important moments in the MCU being changed -
the movie franchise called “The Butterfly Effect,”
and finally, a 1998 film called “Sliding Doors.”
“Sliding Doors” and “The Butterfly Effect”
both have an excellent way of showing chaos theory
in a story-like way.
All these movies include great quotes
and also have a great way of showing chaos theory
as these movies present a hypothetical situation
that demonstrates how small differences
can lead to long and unexpected consequences.
These three films taught me a lot about this phenomenon
and even helped persuade me
to do a TED talk about the chaos theory.
An article from Forbes on chaos theory
even talked about it as the quantum theory shows randomness,
or, as Einstein put it, dice rolling.
But the weather is a large-scale effect
as it can be unpredictable as I previously mentioned before.
You may be wondering,
“So what?
What do you want me to do with all this information?
What am I taking out from this talk?
How does some of this information apply to my life?”
To questions like these or similar ones to them,
I would say that I want you and want everyone listening to this talk
to welcome uncertainty in their life,
embrace change
as a necessary part of the process,
learn from some of your mistakes
at both experiences and decisions that carry positives and negatives,
and begin taking more planned risks in your life.
(Applause)
Thank you for listening.
(Applause)