by John Briggs and F. David Peat
It was written in 1989. I bought it in 1993. I started to read it several times, and never passed page 54. In 2011 I devoured it finally from the first to the last page. Strangely enough it still seems o be ahead of its time. Maybe this is owed to the unfulfilled promises of the chaos theory. Now in 2011 we should see some of the advancements in science promised back then. This might sound sarcastic but the idea and the inherent potential of the new system thinking are still fresh – by no means worn out.
If have to split it into two parts. Firstly, the amazing journey from order to chaos. Order can be represented by mathematical expressions, actually very simple ones. But since they are not linear (sometimes just irrational numbers, which are rounded), and often controlled by self-amplifying mechanisms, they get of of hand and create chaos. This is very impressive due to the simplicity of these formulae. So simple, everybody can understand them, but after a few iterations they generate chaos – like a microphone feeding the music coming from an amplifier back into the same amplifier. The result is noise: chaos.
Secondly, the part where the authors lay out the potential of the chaos theory and the new systems approach. That was back then pure speculation, whilst certainly nice thought experiments. They look today a bit questionable because nobody picked up on these the last twenty years.
During my reading I was always tempted to implement these effects to see it for myself. I will definitely revisit this book late on since it questions a lot of the traditional, set-in-stone, assumptions.
The complete German title is by the way pretty German – long: Die Entdeckung des Chaos: Eine Reise durch die Chaos-Theorie.
If have to split it into two parts. Firstly, the amazing journey from order to chaos. Order can be represented by mathematical expressions, actually very simple ones. But since they are not linear (sometimes just irrational numbers, which are rounded), and often controlled by self-amplifying mechanisms, they get of of hand and create chaos. This is very impressive due to the simplicity of these formulae. So simple, everybody can understand them, but after a few iterations they generate chaos – like a microphone feeding the music coming from an amplifier back into the same amplifier. The result is noise: chaos.
Secondly, the part where the authors lay out the potential of the chaos theory and the new systems approach. That was back then pure speculation, whilst certainly nice thought experiments. They look today a bit questionable because nobody picked up on these the last twenty years.
During my reading I was always tempted to implement these effects to see it for myself. I will definitely revisit this book late on since it questions a lot of the traditional, set-in-stone, assumptions.
The complete German title is by the way pretty German – long: Die Entdeckung des Chaos: Eine Reise durch die Chaos-Theorie.
Facts:
English title: Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness
Original title: Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness
Published: 1989
