Missing Figures
CHAOS
The word “chaos,” an enigmatic part of the vernacular, means a state without order, or the opposite of “cosmos,” an ordered state. Mathematical chaos is instability and unpredictability, often seen in nature due to its sensitivity to the random disturbances that commonly occur. This is known as determinism; previous events heavily influence future events, and small changes eventually lead to larger variations. Philosophically, chaos theory implies that everything is connected; our past actions impact our future. Though chaotic evolution is irregular, there are rules behind its apparent disorder that are used to study it. Studying chaos may enrich our lives and help us understand more of our world.
Though chaos theory is a relatively new branch of science, its origins date back to the late nineteenth century. In 1887, King Oscar II of Sweden began a contest to promote higher learning and celebrate his sixtieth birthday. Contestants were to answer the question “Is the solar system stable?” To answer this query, Henri Poincaré, a brilliant mathematician, worked on a solution to the three body problem; the three body problem discusses the interactions between three different celestial bodies, such as planets or stars. After applying some of his ideas of topology to the problem, Poincaré encountered chaotic behavior. Unwilling to work with this, Poincaré renounced the problem. His discovery demonstrated that even something simple, such as the reduced model that Poincaré was using, can result in intense complexities. Much later, in the 1960’s, chaos was discovered once again. Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist, made a hobby of running weather systems on his home computer at a time when very few scientists had pers...
... middle of paper ...
....htm>.
“Chaos theory.” U*X*L Encyclopedia of Science. 2nd ed. U*X*L, 2002. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 04 August 2005
“Dynamical system.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2005. Wikipedia. 2 Aug 2005. .
“Logistic map.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2005. Wikipedia. 2 Aug 2005. .
“Lorenz attractor.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2005. Wikipedia. 2 Aug 2005. .
Rae, Gregory. “Chaos Theory: A Brief Introduction.” 2003. 31 July 2005. .
Stewart, Ian. Does God play dice?: the mathematics of chaos. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1989.
Tsonis, Anastosios A. Chaos: from theory to applications. New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press, 1992.
The Scientific Context of the Word Chaos In a scientific context, the word chaos has a slightly different
“Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives.”(Crichton 313). Ian Malcolm’s words resolve the book, Jurassic Park, in a very absolute way. Throughout the book, Malcolm, spoke about chaos theory and his self proclaimed “Malcolm Effect” to explain his reasoning in his predictions. Ian Malcolm had predicted the demise of Jurassic Park even before its opening, as well as its multiple problems and difficulties. Malcolm’s theory is evidenced countless times throughout the story of Jurassic Park; dinosaurs are breeding, dinosaurs are escaping, and systems fail.
8- McDermid, Douglas. "God's Existence." PHIL 1000H-B Lecture 9. Trent University, Peterborough. 21 Nov. 2013. Lecture.
According to Edward Lorenz (founder of the Chaos Theory) chaos is the science of surprises, of the nonlinear and the unpredictable. It teaches us to expect the unexpected. Chaos Theory deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather, the stock market, our brain states, and so on. (Lorenz 1995: 187)
Moving forward, according to John Cowburn author of Free Will, Predestination and Determinism (2008), “determinism is the philosophical view is that all humans’ actions are predetermined and that every event an individual encounters can be explained.” (p. 144)” Thus, every event that has happened in one’s life, happens as a result of previous events.
With this form of choice, we are not compelled to act by any other force; it is our moral consciousness that is free and decides. Moreover, these decisions result from the character and moral views of the person themselves, and – according to Libertarians – we are free to act on these decisions but we are also morally responsible for them. We are perceived as free agents with the capability to make choices and accept the consequences. We – as humans – have a sense of weighing up options before we make decisions. However, some people argue that causation is a fact of the universe but Libertarians believe it does not apply to the human will. Libertarians attempt to demonstrate this idea through quantum mechanics as well as the chaos theory; these theories attempt to prove that nature is indeterministic and therefore not everything is determined. If we look at chaos theory, which is the idea that there is apparently random behaviours within a deterministic system, we can see this idea of things not being determined. However, this ‘randomness’ is not due to a lack of laws, but rather due to immeasurable variations in the initial conditions affecting the outcome of an event. Furthermore, this is why chaos theory is often referred to as the butterfly effect as the beat of a butterfly’s wing in Europe could lead to a hurricane in
Ecology of order has been apart of the science of ecology from the very beginning. The chaos theory has been apart of the sciences for some time, but was just recently accepted by ecology. But when it was accepted ecologists studied it and observed ecosystems with this mindset and saw that this theory is very present in nature. Charles Elton once said, “The balance of nature does not exist and perhaps never has existed”. In this paper I will discuss both ecology of order and chaos and will present examples from both sides along with the ecologists that believed in each theory. I am arguing that while there is still some since of stability in our environment, as a whole the ecology of chaos theory seems to be ever present in our ecosystems.
Determinism is the theory that everything is caused by antecedent conditions, and such things cannot be other than how they are. Though no theory concerning this issue has been entirely successful, many theories present alternatives as to how it can be approached. Two of the most basic metaphysical theories concerning freedom and determinism are soft determinism and hard determinism.
I believe that the world is orderly and I base my assumption off of what I know from bible, astronomy, biology, and physics. I do not think the universe is chaotic, I think the world functions uniformly starting from an atomic level.
It can “learn and adapt to change over time” which can change the “structure of the system” (Clancy, Effken, Pesut, 2008). It contains twelve elements: autopoesis or self-regenerization, open exchange, participation in networks, fractals, phase transition between order and chaos, search for fitness peaks, nonlinear dynamics, sensitive dependence, attractors that limit growth, strange attractors of emergence, spirituality, and dissipative structures (Stackman, Henderson, & Bloch, 2006). The first element is autopoesis/self-regeneration.... ... middle of paper ... ... 325-338.
The term “entropy” describes a “measure of disorder or randomness in an isolated system” (Dictionary.com). According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy of an isolated system will always increase over time. Therefore, disorder and randomness are constantly increasing. Amis drew from both this law and the work of the physicist A.S. Eddington in writing T...
Krauss, Lawrence Maxwell, and Richard Dawkins. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. New York, NY: Free, 2012. 7-8. Print.
In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, the strongest conflict is an internal conflict that is most prominently shown in Marlow and Kurtz. This conflict is the struggle between their image of themselves as civilized human beings and the ease of abandoning their morality once they leave society. This inability has a close resemblance to the chaos theory. This is shown through the contrast of Kurtz as told by others and the actuality of him and through the progression of Marlow's character throughout Heart of Darkness.
Chaos theory has numerous application including helping explain phenomena or helping to predict the future. Chaos theory is applicable in various fields ranging from weather, business to medicine. Chaos theory explains the reason why it is practically improbable to predict the weather with the current technology as well as providing a way for people to find patterns in the chaotic system of stock exchange. It also helps with the running of organisation by showing what sort of condition is needed for a profitable business as well as helping doctors predict when heart failure may occur. Fractals which is a concept of chaos theory also is portrayed in the natural world in examples such as lightning and neurons in the brains. Chaos theory has
...t. The Chaos Game can be applied to create other fractals and shapes, and is a major part of an entirely separate area of study: chaos theory. The fact that the Sierpinski Triangle transcends the boundaries of fractal and number theory proves that it is an important part of mathematics. Perhaps the Sierpinski Triangle still holds secrets that, if discovered, will change the way we think about mathematics forever.