PSY435H1 Chapter Notes -Reductionism
Document Summary
Chaotic systems, law and effect still apply: butterfly metaphor: a butterfly flaps its wings in brazil might cause a chain of events culminating a tornado in texas (global atmosphere is sensitive to small perturbations, chaos makes prediction hard for ecology (relations b/w worlds diverse organisms and their natural environments, current ecologists reject traditional ideas of balance and stability (ex. populations of prey and predator become balanced in an ecosystem overtime). Presently no one knows how to engineer systems that provide humans with the life supporting services that natural ecosystems produce for free: we are interdependent with these biological, geochemical and ecological systems if we destroy them we destroy ourselves, thermohaline circulation (movement of water between upper and deep ocean) can be radically affected just by small changes in ocean"s salinity, we know there will be warming but we cant predict its path.
