The butterfly effect is a chaos theory example of how small differences in initial conditions can cause a hugely different outcome much later in some systems. One influential paper is called: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?
Of course this idea changes everything. Like if we don’t like the loss of life that often occurs with tornadoes, we could try to wipe them out entirely by exterminating butterflies globally. I am not going to be tripped up easily in this mission. I know that moths have the same type of flap and come in the same types of sizes as butterflies. So of course we would find it necessary to wipe them out, too. But it’s all for the greater good.
But if one little butterfly’s flap can cause a tornado what about the giant, monstrous moth, Mothra? Mothra is said to have a wingspan of 250 meters. What could the flap of those wings do to poor old mother earth’s weather?
Personally I think it would be so disastrous that earth beings could very likely be wiped out. Which is why I believe that Mothra has never visited the earth. Instead, I believe it has ended up affecting the weather on Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
I bet you’re going to ask if I have any proof for this outlandish claim. Well it is my thinking that Mothra flapped its wings once, a millennia ago on Jupiter, which eventually created the great red spot. This storm has been seen for hundreds of years by astronomers, since observations were first taken of Jupiter. This storm is also the diameter of 3 earths which should sufficiently scare you about the possibility of Mothra causing something similar on the earth.
But is this the worst possible calamity that could be caused by the flap of some wings?
Well stars, including our sun, are said to have weather as well. The Carrington Event of 1859 caused a coronal mass ejection on the sun that hit earth’s magnetosphere and caused disruptions of telegraph systems all over the earth. A solar event like this today would cause widespread blackouts and remind us that the weather of the sun definitely affects the earth.
But nothing can live on the sun. Or can it? Mike Brotherton’s Star Dragon is one such beast that not only lives on a star but thrives there and has control of much of its environment. Maybe one flap of its mighty wings can cascade over a few months and cause a modern day Carrington Event.
So maybe we’ll have to exterminate Mothras and Star Dragons as we venture out into space. But maybe we’ll be too soft to do it because after all we will have no tornadoes affecting our lives in the future.
