It has been traditional to think of force...or torque... as some kind of agency which causes observable changes. If the force is opposed by another, then distortion occurs. If the force is unopposed, then acceleration takes place. This simplification normally ignores the reality that any single force required to achieve some design objective, can only be produced by a complex structure which is able to nullify the effect of the reaction. Thus on earth, using only one hand, I can slowly tighten the screw of a clamp provided that both myself and the clamp are anchored to a substantial chunk of reality... but if the same operation is attemped in space, both myself and the clamp are rotated in opposite directions. The chemical energy in my muscles is redistributed and change is produced which is attributed to a force. A simplification which generalized such considerations would suggest that any force is the noticable deformation or deviation which is associated with the redisposition of a form of energy. To model how gravitaional, electrical and particle forces are produced for example, one might investigate what energy redistributions could occur that would induce them.

If an object is constrained then whatever is doing the constraining will itself be deformed in the process. Any attempt to balance or restrain a distortion requires the introduction of another distortion contrived to limit the first. The lever of the G-cramp bends when it twists against the friction of the screw which compresses the washer which distorts the arm of the clamp. There is a sense in which it might appear that infinite chains of forces are initiated each time there is an energy redistribution and that far distant events like cyclones can be precipitated by the local flapping of an insect wing. This is to ignore or deny the existence of the chaotic reality substrate. Events stand out from their chaotic scale order as gross and plainly distinguishable, but any consequent distortions are quite quickly dissipated and attenuated into the background chaos of the scale at which they were identified. The solitary flapping of an insect wing is only one input into the turbulence of the atmosphere amongst uncountable and unidentifiable others, and only contributes to the disorder at that scale. No random input into a chaotic essence can ever sensibly be considered to have a unique traceable output via an uncountable chain of random linkages. A butterfly in a vehicle which distracts the driver with its flapping, so that a crash ensues, is an identifiable chaotic incursion into normal expectations, but to suppose that such flapping might influence global meteorology, is in fact to deny chaos rather than recognize it.