Today, there is a whole realm of scientific endeavor called nonlinear dynamics with mathematical foundations. It has been known since 1975, rather misleadingly, as “chaos theory.” Systems are nonlinear when the state they are in at a given point in time provides the input to a feedback mechanism which determines the new state of the system. Some such systems are sensitively dependent on the starting state. If so, future states are unpredictable. Such systems are called “chaotic.” The term is misleading because their states are not random, merely unknowable.26 Only recent increases in computing
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