It is sometimes heard that people are less likely to regret the things
they have done, the places they've been, the accomplishments of their life than
the things they have not done, the places they did not get to. This can be a
good thing to keep in mind to make sure you actually do the things you want to
do. But whether or not your life is all you want it to be at this time, why
have any regrets at all? Every single little thing that has happened in your
life has led you to exactly where you are now, right? And any little thing that might have been different also means
that you may not be here at all. This is because of the now well-known
butterfly effect, brought to all the world's attention by M.I.T.'s Edward Lorenz
in 1961. He was experimenting with
predicting weather patterns on his computer (a relic by today's
standards) and found quite by accident that a minute change in information,
just one part in a thousand, would result in the predictions being drastically
different. In other words, things became extremely UNpredictable. (What is it
with computers and the weather? The brilliant John von Neumann who put together
the JOHNNIAC computer at Princeton in the early 1950's thought that predicting
and controlling the weather would be one of the greatest results of his
work). The French mathematician Henri
Poincare knew this well when he wrote in 1908 concerning certain equations of
motion, "…it may happen that small differences in the initial conditions
produce very great ones in the final phenomena…prediction becomes
impossible". The butterfly effect takes hold, that basic tenet of chaos
theory that I was unknowingly promoting along with my father whenever he'd
watch a baseball game on TV. Which was pretty often. The announcer would say
something like, "this solo home run would have been a two run shot if
Bagglio hadn't gotten picked off first base". What? What was he saying? If
Bagglio hadn't gotten picked off, everything is different. Sure, a home run might
have been hit anyway, but it's a whole different pitch, a whole different
situation, A WHOLE DIFFERENT FUTURE. I came to call this sort of thing the
baseball announcer's fallacy. (Recently watching a game on TV, I found they
still do this). You may also have heard of it's relative, known as
"sensitive dependence". I think of it every time I watch a
butterfly's wings. Every action, or lack of it, creates another destiny. If you
had done just one thing differently, met one more person, or one less, or stayed
in your car five seconds longer one time, or didn't brush your teeth one night,
your entire life after that moment may have been radically different. So why
even think about regrets unless you are intent on "living in the
past" (a so far impossible task even for the most imaginative theoretical
physicists). I'm not talking about casually saying, "gee, wouldn't it have
been neat if…" as a kind of
exercise in possibilities. That can be fun! But the past is gone. You
can and do control the future, however. Every minute, every choice you
make. Live in the present, learn from
your actions, and plan for a great future. You are here now, forget the
regrets.