Brian Klaas, an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London and contributing writer for The Atlantic, explores the intricate web of chaos theory. He discusses the butterfly effect and how tiny changes can have monumental impacts, challenging our sense of individual control. Klaas questions the myth of determinism and emphasizes the unpredictability of life, suggesting that believing we have complete agency is a delusion. His insights provoke thought about how interconnected we truly are in shaping our futures.
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insights INSIGHT
Small Errors, Huge Consequences
Edward Lorenz's weather model showed tiny rounding differences can produce vastly different outcomes.
This discovery birthed the butterfly effect and explains why long-term weather forecasts fail.
insights INSIGHT
Individuals Aren't Exempt From Chaos
Human beings are physical systems subject to the same chaotic laws as weather.
Therefore our sense of complete individual control is scientifically implausible.
insights INSIGHT
Sensitivity Explains Unpredictability
Tiny, often unmeasured variations can flip outcomes from blue sky to hurricane.
That sensitivity explains both unpredictability and why small actions can cascade into big effects.
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“When you think about this interconnection of all these tiny causes and effects which add up to the way the world unfolds, it becomes impossible to imagine that we have complete control.”
Could the tiniest ripple in time alter the future of our universe? Can the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings really cause a hurricane? Professor and political scientist Brian Klaas dives into the deep waters of chaos theory.
From the myth of total control to the limits of predictability, Brian Klaas traces how the butterfly effect challenges the illusion of individual agency.
Chapters:-
0:00 Do we have complete control?
0:20 The origin of The Butterfly Effect
2:22 The delusion of individualism
2:42 Laplace’s Demon
3:42 Predicting the future
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About Brian Klaas:
Dr. Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is also the author five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). Klaas writes the popular The Garden of Forking Paths Substack and created the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, which has been downloaded roughly three million times.
Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, political violence, elections, and the nature of power. Additionally, his research interests include contingency, chaos theory, evolutionary biology, the philosophy of science and social science, and complex systems. In addition to Fluke and Corruptible, Klaas authored three earlier books: The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (Hurst & Co, 2017); The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, (Oxford University Press, 2016) and How to Rig an Election (Yale University Press, co-authored with Professor Nic Cheeseman; 2018).
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