Everything affects everything ...

MrDLB, the butterfly refers as an example to a complicated theory . The "what if" is it a tittle on your book?

That is interesting... I live in Pacific Grove, California... the home of the Monarch Butterfly... so I use that symbol in my AOL.com Instant messanger... And, I am writing a book called "Life is a Journey ... A Heavenward Transformation" which my Part Two of my book is based on "What If?"

you wrote down some philosophical questions and your references are out of subject, but still very good effort. Thanks for sharing your thoughts !

A philosophical question has often been posed -- if a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, then did it make a sound?  At first, this seems like a fairly stupid question.  Of course it made a sound, even if nobody heard that sound; one does not "validate" a sound by hearing it.  With further thought, the question takes on no additional meaning, because certainly every forest has some living creatures in it, even if not human ones.  Certainly somebody heard that tree fall, and it made some sort of indelible mark on them.  Maybe it scared them, and, as a result, they moved further from the center of the forest, and closer to (human) civilization.  Maybe this mass migration caused interations that otherwise would not have occurred, some good, some violent.  Yes, I think I hear the ripple effect of that tree loud and clear now.

Maybe a boat from the Ukraine to Italy (I hope I am remembering this correctly) carries rats which themselves carry pests and leads to the great epidemic of 1918.  Today, it is the bird flu.  Also today we have all these idiots who have to drive junior to the bus stop in the SUV instead of -- gasp -- walking the half a block.  This seemingly local effect is a contributing factor in global warming, with the emphasis on that word "GLOBAL".

This butterfly effect would seem to be messing up our world.  But, alas, there is another side to it too.  Maybe we lose a loved one to some dread disease, and carry this tremendous loss with us until we can unburden ourselves by feeling compassion for someone else now going through what we went through before.  Maybe the butterfly effect reduces the degrees of separation from six to some smaller number.  Maybe all it really means is that we are all connected, for better or for worse.

yes, i know about all these you just wrote, you are rephering to the theory of chaos. But if you analyse this the conclusions are: our life depents on how a butterfly moved its wings?? Do you ever thing where would you be now if that day you didn't do that, or the opposite? Still is scary...

humm.

Does this help...?

First discovered when investigating the weather.

Other examples: one grain triggering a landslide in a sandcastle. one footprint triggering an avalanche.
if a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the earth it is said to cause a hurricane on the other side . How one little thing can snowball into a huge thing. 
The butterfly effect has been most commonly associated with the Weather system as this is where the discovery of "non-linear" phenomenon.
The phrase refers to an idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado OR delay, accelerate or even prevent the future occurrence of a tornado in a certain location.

The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. While the butterfly does not cause the tornado, the flap of its wings is an essential part of the initial conditions resulting in a tornado..
(physics) In a chaotic system, the ability of miniscule changes in initial conditions (such as the flap of a butterfly's wings) to have far-reaching, large-scale effects on the development of the system (such as the course of weather a continent away).
1. Major events can be caused by surprisingly unrelated minor forces, apparently distant from any particular event. (butterfly effect)
On a person note The Monarch is my favorite Butterfly..

Have they  an effect on you ??

I bet there is..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe1YRC18U7E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe1YRC18U7E&feature=related