What is the ‘chaos theory’? No doubt you will have heard of the expression, as have I, but my understanding of what it is isn’t exactly extensive. I always thought it was some kind of quirky idea as to how the universe works (or something), or the result of many clever men barricaded in some physics lab somewhere. It was a recent conversation that made me both aware of my ignorance and resulted in the topic of this article. As it turned out the dramatic sounding chaos theory is the ‘qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behaviour in deterministic non-linear dynamical systems’. I don’t know what that means. I looked further and then discovered this interesting and ancient quote:

"For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of a horse, the rider was lost;
For want of a rider, a message was lost;
For want of a message the battle was lost;
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost!"

The appliance of the chaos theory in our lives is just this. The smallest, most undiliberate event can have vast repercussions on the outcome of a sitituation. At least this is my rather simplified explanation; I am no mathematician and the chaos theory is surrounded by equations and expressions I will not even pretend I know. However it is simple common sense that one small event can make what seem to be identical, dynamic situations appear to diverge as time goes on until all resemblance disappears. What fascinates me is that our world is filled with such events, everyday millions of incidents, whether small or big, will shape and mould mankind’s destiny, let alone on an individual level. For example if it weren’t for a chance introduction at a party in 1972 my parents would not have met. I would not exist. Or if you are looking for a global example of the chaos theory how about this: in the summer of 1665 a young 23 year old man saw an apple fall from a tree. The direction the apple fell, along with every other object on this round earth, was always toward Earth's centre. This allowed the young man to build a theory about gravity, this theory was not only ground breaking but in turn would revolutionise the way we approach science. The young man was Isaac Newton and all this was from an apple falling randomly on a summer’s day in a garden in Lincolnshire.

Having said that though, there is no way of telling that that might be the case. Newton could have been influenced by something else later on in his life. But this is what I find interesting; we know small events can act as influences, triggers and even as inspiration, but to what degree do they affect the long-term fortune of humanity? A textbook might say complex, dynamical systems show order, but they never repeat. Since our world is classified as a dynamical, complex system, our lives, our weather, and our experiences will never repeat; however, they should form patterns. And I would call this pattern, in the great scheme of things, life.

If you want to comment on, agree or disagree, or have not understood a word of this article then please write to me at: alexmreid@hotmail.com.

Alex Reid. 17.11.02