This short story, published in the journal Nature, imagines a future in which people can have the Lyapunov exponent of their own lives evaluated for a fee. Theoretically, this would give them an idea of how different their life could have turned out if things had been just ever so slightly different at one moment.
Other than mentioning Lyapunov a few times, math is not explicitly referenced in the story itself. The author has advanced degrees in physics and the philosophy of science and in a supplement to the story discusses her inspiration for writing it, which involved learning about fractals and chaos theory as a teenager.
Thanks to Allan Goldberg for suggesting that it be added to this database.
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