Epistemological Implications

20. Chaos Theories

• Sensitive dependence on initial conditions (a small change in the initial conditions can drastically change the long-term behavior of a system).
  
  • In a complex system, there is never the same context twice.

• That which appears to be small scale disorder is often actually large scale patterning.
• Systems that appear chaotic, but aren't, produce self-similarities, exact copies of parts of themselves, hidden deep inside their chaotic appearances.
  • Chaotic systems feature moments/aspects of order that surround areas of attraction
• Small variation events often cascade into large scale patterns of change.
  • Chaotic systems often bifurcate when a variable changes.
• Scale is relative to point of view: a wider view will often show patterns which look random up close.

• Chaos, then, folds back on Oscillation/Resolution/Point of View/Information

Concept 20 Analysis article:

"How the Collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Has Disrupted A.I."
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/technology/sam-bankman-fried-crypto-artificial-intelligence.html>

Want to learn more?

Butterfly - The Secret Life of Chaos - BBC 4 Preview

Chaos Theory

An Introduction to Chaos Theory with the Lorenz Attractor