LS Chaos and the MoQ


Platt Holden (pholden@worldnet.att.net)
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 16:13:16 +0100


Hi TLS,

Once you become imbued with MoQ principles they begin to show up in places
you wouldn't expect to find them. The other night I began reading Michael
Crichton' s novel 'The Lost World' and came across this passage in the
Prelude:

"He shifted at the podium, transferring his weight onto his cane. 'But even
more important,' he said, 'is the way complex systems seem to strike a
balance between the need for order and the imperative to change. Complex
systems tend to locate at a place we call the edge of chaos. We imagine the
edge of chaos as a place where there is enough innovation to keep a living
system vibrant, and enough stability to keep it from collapsing into
anarchy. It is a zone of conflict and upheaval, where the old and the new
are constantly at war. Finding the balance point must be a delicate matter
-- if a living system drifts too close, it risks falling over into
incoherence and dissolution; but if the system moves too far away from
edge, it becomes rigid, frozen, totalitarian. Both conditions lead to
extinction. Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the
edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.'"

This sounds like good old Static/Dynamic Quality to me. Doug Renselle has
found it in Quantum Theory. Now Crichton sees it in Chaos Theory. I'm not
versed enough in either theory to make further comment. But I'm struck by
how the MoQ appears to support the latest scientific discoveries and vice
versa.

Platt

Catch 40: It's wrong to make moral judgments.

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