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Authors: Robert Littell
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feet, adjusts his eyeglasses, surveys the three-piece suits, the sport jackets with suede elbow patches, the potbellies,
the bifocals, the balding crowns, the thumbs pressing tobacco into the bowls of pipes. He nods at several of the Institute’s
professors whom he knows from international symposiums. He notices Rebbe Nachman smiling encouragingly.
“I can say you—” Lemuel begins.
“Can you speak up, Professor?” someone calls from the back of the room.
Lemuel clears his throat. “I can say you, you may not want to hear it,” he starts again in a stronger voice, “that I have
arrived to Backwater armed with more questions than answers. I will not bore you with the easy ones—how is it possible to
wear your heart on your sleeve? In what respect can a lady barber be compared to a number? What does ‘Nonstops to the most
Florida cities’ really mean? How can one city be more Florida than another? Concerning which side is up, who gets to decide
that in America? I will not occupy your time even with the tantalizing question Rebbe Nachman posed me last night, namely,
if God really loved man, would He have created him? I will, with your permission, move right on to the question which keeps
me awake nights. …”
Lemuel glances at the plate to make sure the seeded roll is still there, then looks up at the audience. “What is chaos? It
has been variously defined—as order without periodicity, for instance; as seemingly random recurrent behavior in deterministic
systems such as ocean tides and temperatures, stock-market prices, weather, fish populationsin ponds, the dripping of a faucet. I would suggest you these definitions do not cut to the bone, I would like to offer another
way of looking at chaos, here it is: that systems too complex for classical mathematics can be said to obey simple laws. Let
me give you a for instance. Using the tools of classical mathematics, we can more or less calculate the long-term motion of
the fifty or so bodies in the solar system. But trying to comprehend the short-term motion of the hundred trillion or so particles
in a milligram of gas is beyond the competence of the most powerful computer, not to say the most brilliant programmer. Yet
we can understand a great deal about the motion of the gas particles if we grasp that the incredibly complex world contained
in this milligram of gas can be said to obey simple laws.”
Lemuel’s mouth is suddenly bone dry. He takes a sip of water. When he looks up he discovers the luncheon guests leaning forward,
hanging on his words. Encouraged, he plunges on. “The science of chaos can accordingly be seen as an effort to come to grips
with the essence of complexity. In my view the traditional sciences, which is to say physics, chemistry, biology, et cetera,
have become ‘tenders to.’ They are the small boats servicing the yacht, which is the science of chaos.” This elicits a titter
from the audience, all of whom at one time or another have visited Rain’s Tender To. “The only really original, and in some
cases elegant, work around today is being done by chaoticists, who have demonstrated that complex systems obey simple laws,
and in so doing act in seemingly random ways. Which permits us to conclude”—Lemuel is speaking slowly now, selecting his words
warily—”that deterministic chaos is the explanation for most randomness. But … but is it the explanation for
all
randomness?”
Several people in the audience whisper excitedly to each other. “Vat is he telling us?” demands the visiting professor from
Germany.
“He is suggesting chaos should play second fiddle to randomness,” grumbles his neighbor, an astrophysicist on loan from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Several people within earshot nod in agreement.
Lemuel looks directly at the Rebbe. “Excuse me if I say you my question is more critical to our understanding of the universe,
and our place in it,
the bifocals, the balding crowns, the thumbs pressing tobacco into the bowls of pipes. He nods at several of the Institute’s
professors whom he knows from international symposiums. He notices Rebbe Nachman smiling encouragingly.
“I can say you—” Lemuel begins.
“Can you speak up, Professor?” someone calls from the back of the room.
Lemuel clears his throat. “I can say you, you may not want to hear it,” he starts again in a stronger voice, “that I have
arrived to Backwater armed with more questions than answers. I will not bore you with the easy ones—how is it possible to
wear your heart on your sleeve? In what respect can a lady barber be compared to a number? What does ‘Nonstops to the most
Florida cities’ really mean? How can one city be more Florida than another? Concerning which side is up, who gets to decide
that in America? I will not occupy your time even with the tantalizing question Rebbe Nachman posed me last night, namely,
if God really loved man, would He have created him? I will, with your permission, move right on to the question which keeps
me awake nights. …”
Lemuel glances at the plate to make sure the seeded roll is still there, then looks up at the audience. “What is chaos? It
has been variously defined—as order without periodicity, for instance; as seemingly random recurrent behavior in deterministic
systems such as ocean tides and temperatures, stock-market prices, weather, fish populationsin ponds, the dripping of a faucet. I would suggest you these definitions do not cut to the bone, I would like to offer another
way of looking at chaos, here it is: that systems too complex for classical mathematics can be said to obey simple laws. Let
me give you a for instance. Using the tools of classical mathematics, we can more or less calculate the long-term motion of
the fifty or so bodies in the solar system. But trying to comprehend the short-term motion of the hundred trillion or so particles
in a milligram of gas is beyond the competence of the most powerful computer, not to say the most brilliant programmer. Yet
we can understand a great deal about the motion of the gas particles if we grasp that the incredibly complex world contained
in this milligram of gas can be said to obey simple laws.”
Lemuel’s mouth is suddenly bone dry. He takes a sip of water. When he looks up he discovers the luncheon guests leaning forward,
hanging on his words. Encouraged, he plunges on. “The science of chaos can accordingly be seen as an effort to come to grips
with the essence of complexity. In my view the traditional sciences, which is to say physics, chemistry, biology, et cetera,
have become ‘tenders to.’ They are the small boats servicing the yacht, which is the science of chaos.” This elicits a titter
from the audience, all of whom at one time or another have visited Rain’s Tender To. “The only really original, and in some
cases elegant, work around today is being done by chaoticists, who have demonstrated that complex systems obey simple laws,
and in so doing act in seemingly random ways. Which permits us to conclude”—Lemuel is speaking slowly now, selecting his words
warily—”that deterministic chaos is the explanation for most randomness. But … but is it the explanation for
all
randomness?”
Several people in the audience whisper excitedly to each other. “Vat is he telling us?” demands the visiting professor from
Germany.
“He is suggesting chaos should play second fiddle to randomness,” grumbles his neighbor, an astrophysicist on loan from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Several people within earshot nod in agreement.
Lemuel looks directly at the Rebbe. “Excuse me if I say you my question is more critical to our understanding of the universe,
and our place in it,
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