Chaos and Order – Harmonia Philosophica

Tides. Storms. Predictions.

A new international study applied a novel statistical method that — for the first time — captures the important interactions between tides and storm surges. These natural forces are caused by meteorological effects, such as strong winds and low atmospheric pressure, and their impacts have often been difficult to understand because of the complexity of Mother Nature. (1)

Calculating with greater and greater accuracy. Until we predict everything. And realize that we used to know that we will know. But we never really knew it…

But inside the storm.

We will feel it.

That calmness behind the rain.

Which breeds chaos…

Making all predictions useless.

Look. Clouds.

Yes, I know. Rain is coming…

Coincidences. Noise. Systems. Predictions.

When we predict future climate, it is important to understand the climate of the past. We do. Mostly. Some details are still debatable.

An example of that are the periodicities of ice ages – that is, how ice ages come and go. This is described in a theory developed by amongst others the astronomer Milankovitch in the 1920ies. The theory is good, but it doesn’t explain everything. The periodicity of ice ages has not been as precise as the theory would indicate. Why is that? Is it because of noise in the system.

Now climate scientist document that the climate system is more chaotic than the model indicates. A myriad of coincidences seem to displace the ice ages from the predictions of the theory. (1)

Coincidences.

In a cosmos full of patterns.

Patterns.

In a cosmos full of coincidences.

Order.

In a cosmos full of chaos.

Chaos.

In a cosmos built on order.

How can you see anything?

The opposites define their opposites.

In the same way you define yourself.

Forget about coincidences.

Let go of the patterns.

There is no chaos.

No order.

Just… you!

Chaos… Order…

Photo by **Spiros Kakos** from **Pexels**

The birds form mobs to drive away predators near their nests, and are initially disordered. A new study, by biologists at the University of Exeter, physicists at Stanford University and computer scientists from Simon Fraser University in Canada, shows a dramatic switch to “ordered motion” once the group reaches a certain density. Chaotic mobs of jackdaws suddenly get organised once enough birds join in, this research shows. (1)

Chaos… Chaos… Chaos…

Only to bear order…

Could anything be more chaotic* than that?!

* In chaos you expect… chaos!

AI. Universe. Logos.

Researchers have successfully created a model of the Universe using artificial intelligence, reports a new study.

Researchers seek to understand our Universe by making model predictions to match observations. Historically, they have been able to model simple or highly simplified physical systems, jokingly dubbed the “spherical cows,” with pencils and paper. Later, the arrival of computers enabled them to model complex phenomena with numerical simulations. For example, researchers have programmed supercomputers to simulate the motion of billions of particles through billions of years of cosmic time, a procedure known as the N-body simulations, in order to study how the Universe evolved to what we observe today.

“Now with machine learning, we have developed the first neural network model of the Universe, and demonstrated there’s a third route to making predictions, one that combines the merits of both analytic calculation and numerical simulation,” said Yin Li, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, and jointly the University of California, Berkeley. (1)

A perfect model of the universe by using artificial intelligence.

But why use intelligence at all to analyze a random universe?

We feel the cosmos is made out of order.

And yet our mind is full of chaos.

Believing in chaos and yet striving for order.

Unable to grasp the simple truth: that there is no truth!

And this is the most stable law of them all.

Transcending through the cosmos.

Making it dance in the void of space.

Making it stand still inside your mind.

Create the AI. Look at it modeling the universe.

Do you see yourself in it?

You will understand everything at the end.

But only at the moment you pull the plug.

And stop looking at this perfectly functional model of the cosmos…

Chaos… Order… Chaos…

Photo by **Martin Péchy** from **Pexels**

Can chaotic systems also synchronize with each other? Physicists from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, along with colleagues from Spain, India and Italy, analyzed the Rossler system and discovered new phenomena that have been overlooked until now.

For the first time the researchers were able to measure the fine grain process that leads from disorder to synchrony, discovering a new kind of synchronization between chaotic systems: Topological Synchronization. Traditionally, synchronization has been examined by comparing the time-course of activity of the two systems. Topological Synchronization instead examines synchronization by comparing the structures of the systems.

As per the researchers, “Every chaotic system attracts its own unique strange attractor. By Topological Synchronization we mean that two strange attractors have the same organization and structures. At the beginning of the synchronization process, small areas on one strange attractor have the same structure of the other attractor, meaning that they are already synced. At the end of the process, all the areas of one strange attractor will have the structure of the other and complete Topological Synchronization has been reached.”

This means that chaotic systems synchronize gradually through local structures that, surprisingly, kick off in the sparse areas of the system and only then spread to the more populated areas. In these sparse areas the activity is less chaotic than in other areas and, as a result, it is easier for these areas to sync relative to those that are much more erratic. (1)

In a fully chaotic system.

Small clearings of order.

And at the end, the system will be in sync.

In a totally ordered system.

Vast hidden oceans of chaos.

And at the beginning, the system will breed a new cosmos…

A new cosmos which will again be in order once more.

An order which will create a new chaos to engulf everything…

For the cosmos we live in is neither ordered nor chaotic.

The cosmos we live in just Is.

Trying to speak to us.

Trying to break its limitations and communicate.

Throw that stone into the calm lake.

Can you hear the roaring abyss?