...how does a bumblebee fly??

The Butterfly Effect: Chaos at Work

So I know that most people won't care but I'm posting this anyway...ha!

So, I read Jurassic Park 2...again. I recommend it for all to read as an introduction to Preschool...helps to open the mind to a ridiculous amount of vaguely related theoretical rambles of a mathematician and biologists.

From wikipedia:

Chaos theory is that branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of error, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. That is, tiny differences in the starting state of the system can lead to enormous differences in the final state of the system even over fairly small timescales. This gives the impression that the system is behaving randomly. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully determined by their initial conditions with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.

Chaotic behavior is also observed in natural systems, such as weather. This may be explained by analysis of a chaotic mathematical model which represents such a system. Quantum chaos investigates the relationship between chaos and quantum mechanics.

So the mathematician rants on about the meaning of the universe - really that there is not meaning and but complexity theory explains the more the "how" of a thing, if not the why. Scientist generally reject the idea of a "how" as it means that a "higher power" or some sort of extraterrestrial being was involved in the creation of and determinative reasoning (e.g. god(s), aliens). Complexity theory is a subset of the original chaos theory as finds order in complex systems (e.g. the universe, animal societies, sand on the beach). He rambles in a drug induced stupor about how questionable an anatomical stance to evolution would be, but evolution can not simply be of a physical concept but of a behavioral one as well.

This I accept. We evolve everyday in our behavior. We learn to stop at red lights, we learn not to touch the iron, we learn what is takes to survive in the corporate world. Human intelligence is the one thing that defines us from most other animals though I don't have the highest respect for homo sepian.

The mathematician continues with the following thoughts: Who says that we're sentient? Who says that we are self aware? The one defining characteristic equaled to our intelligence is our inability to use it. Most people do not think for themselves. They follow the leader, the look for the alpha dog, they do as they are told. Understanding that to a point, one must do what they are told in order to keep at least a small semblance of social order, but not to the extend that one cannot think for themselves. Most people swallow the dogma that is shoved down their mouths. Most cannot process ideas or concepts for themselves and rely on others to spoon feed concepts to them.

Certainly this is a very cynical view of humanity, but perhaps true. And yet this does nothing to prove complexity theory wrong. The problem is that science can deduce the how, where, when, what, but seldom the why of many complex systems.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. - Albert Einstein

Enter religion - the science of man's attempt to understand God. Many try to avoid this box by using the term "this is not religion, this is salvation" - only that completely voids the definition of the word religion, so to keep a level of accuracy, we'll stick to Webster's word instead of the dogmatic view and expulsion of generally used words at the whim of a someone who can't figure out how to explain them.

Religion attempts to explain the why of things. Tries to give meaning to all, tries to provide a reason for the rhyme. This then requires the creation of the "God Concept". Again, the higher power, man upstairs, supreme being or multiples of these. This is a far easier concept to create rather than believing that the universe created all that we know today. The argument is that something had to create what we see today. Something cannot come from nothing.

Well, I'm still not sure what "nothing" is. So speak about "nothing" or "no thing" you are defining that the opposite can exist (thing). So that makes no sense. However, it seems more accurate to say that the universe has always existed as a "thing" because it is simply a concept that does not expend on time. Big bang theorist can escape their problem of answering for the creation of the original "whatever" that "big-banged" into what we see today by saying that the "whatever" was energy and not matter. The problem with matter is that it is spatially defined. To have the matter in the 3rd dimension, we are forced to also have dimensions 1, 2, and 4 (4 is time). So, if the universe contained no elements that extended into the 4th dimension, then the universe had nothing that had to do with time, which escapes that argument altogether, giving the Big Bang Theory more credibility and minimizing that of the Creationism Theory.

And yet, complexity theory screams for notice to be given to a simple example. The building of a building. The architect, the buyer, the bank, the construction company, all the contracting companies, the city inspector, the electrical engineer, the mechanical engineer, and many others working together to make a building that is hardly perfect. Corrections and modifications made to fix the many mistakes and structural tests made to make sure that the building stands. Thousands of hours and millions of dollars going into it with hundreds of thousands of working parts all fitting together to make it all happen even with all its faults and imperfections, its fixes and corrections....

....and yet the fly that lands on the workman's lunch is perfect. Its millions of millions of interactions within each cell. Each cell becoming one of hundreds and fitting just when the development of that fly requires it. And in the end that disgusting maggot, becomes a revolting fly. A revolting fly whose intricacies we cannot replicate...a fly whose beauty we can only dream about.

We little humans think that we can understand or know the God(s) that created this all or define the evolutionary process that brought it all to be. We are a funny, arrogant bunch. Backward, non-thinking, and yet determined to believe that we do. We building a pyramid and marvel at it. Go into space and think highly of it. Cure a disease and applaud ourselves for it...

...and still can't figure out how a bumblebee can fly :)

So what does everything all mean? What's the point of it all? Great question...so, what's for lunch?