What Environmental Reporting Leaves Out

[Iterate]

73. Not a theory, but a paradigm,

and that makes me cringe every time see the term "chaos theory", especially if it's capitalized. Besides, "complexity" is a better term as it encompasses other phenomena such as emergence, dimensionality, and non-linear dynamics.

As a paradigm it does not directly make predictions, but it does make requirements of the methods and theories used to make the predictions. It also describes the limits of what we can know. In the same fashion that understanding and prediction in biology requires evolution, a complexity paradigm requires that evolution be considered fundamentally dynamic and complex. It's also not a ToE, but it does require that a complete ToE contain the root of its own emergence.

I've tried teaching this at various times since the 1970's, but without real success. I found that it's a little like teaching irony or humor, people either get it initially or they don't. Fair enough, it's not easy to convince someone that the chair they are sitting on is not an object but an event with its own dynamic history, and living a life based on probability is not an easy sell.

For those who have trouble grasping the basic idea of non-linear change, I can only suggest they find a busy street and sit at the bottom some early wintry day, waiting for a change in the interactive patterns of cars as water makes its sudden phase shift at 0 C. If you feel trepidation at the thought of watching from the crosswalk, you might have a more profound understanding than you think.