EVERY EFFECT WAS ONCE A CAUSE

Nothing exists in isolation. The event you witness now was set in motion before you arrived to observe it. And the observation itself becomes a cause of what follows.

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION

But causation always correlates. The trick is distinguishing the signal from coincidence. Statistical shadows can look exactly like causal chains -- until you intervene.

THE BUTTERFLY CANNOT KNOW THE HURRICANE

Sensitive dependence on initial conditions. A perturbation too small to measure can cascade through a system until it reshapes the world. The cause is real. The prediction is impossible.

DETERMINISM IS A PRISON WITHOUT WALLS

If every effect has a cause, and every cause was itself an effect, then free will is an illusion we tell ourselves to avoid the vertigo of infinite regression. Or perhaps the illusion is itself a cause.

RETROCAUSALITY

In quantum mechanics, the effect can precede the cause. The measurement at time T2 determines the state at time T1. The arrow of causation points backward. The chain loops.

P(B|A) = 0.73

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY

Every causal model is a simplification. The true graph of cause and effect has infinite resolution. We draw lines between nodes and call it understanding. The gaps between the lines contain everything we have missed.

TERMINUS

You scrolling to this point is the effect. What was the cause?