1 Introduction

This century has seen three major scientific revolutions – the theory of relativity, quantum theory and chaos theory.

"Relativity eliminated the Newtonian illusion of absolute space and time; quantum theory eliminated the Newtonian dream of a controllable measurement process; chaos eliminates the Laplacian fantasy of deterministic predicability." Although chaos has only recently become a catch phrase in science, many of the world’s oldest cultures have notions of chaos richly embedded in their mythologies and cosmogonies. Interesting parallels can be found between many of the concepts of these ancient cultures, some of which can even be seen to tie in with the discoveries of modern chaos theory.

With the arising of modern scientific principles in Greece, the world went through a period in which chaos was all but forgotten, being considered an invalid concept. The natural world was to be fundamentally ruled by orderly systems, although sometimes the order was too complex to be understood. Building on this concept of order, many scientists envisaged the power to predict the future of the universe forever. At the time, it was an absolutely mind-blowing concept.

The Greek perception of an ordered universe held firm for over two thousand years until developments in technology mid-way through this century. Chaos theory arose out of a newfound facility to harness the power of computers for mathematical and physical analysis.

Chaos theory uncovered what became known as ‘deterministic unpredictability’ – a chaotic situation arising from an equation or system that has no outside influences or hidden secrets. It became apparent that incredible complexity could arise out of very simple equations. In fact, order and chaos were found to closely linked, the one often arising out of the other. As science has matured, it has realised how much it cannot predict.

Chaos theory draws together a wide range of sciences, including ecology, economics, meteorology, geometry, mathematics, physics, electronics and astrophysics. It finds common themes between previously unrelated scientific disciplines.

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