[MD] Chaos

[Ham Priday]

Hi Chin, Marsha --

Marsha asked:
> Chaos is relative.  Isn't it?

Chin responded:
> Chaos just simply states that no matter how much
> data you collect, there is no reason to believe the next
> set of data will look anything like the last. In predicting
> the weather, a butterfly flapping its wings on the other
> side of the world could cause a tornado that was
> going to happen here not, or one that was not going
> to happen, happen.

The answer to Marsha's question is No.  Chaos is a state of total
disorganization where confusion reigns.  What could it be relative to?

Chin continues:
> In mathematics, if you start with the number 5 at the
> beginning of an extended equation, the end result
> would be totally different if you used the number
> 5.00001 at the beginning.

That is not an example of chaos.  When you select a numerical value and
apply it to an equation, no matter how extended, you establish a relation -- 
the value (5,00001) to the product or result of the equation.  Relationship
is precisely what chaos lacks.

Cosmologists have theorized that chaos was the state of "primordial matter"
before the creation of distinct forms.  This theory presumes that one of the
random "possibilities" of chance is the "taming" of material chaos toward a
progressively higher state of organization in which human awareness is the
most advanced form.  Pirsig is not explicit on the creation theory of the
MoQ, but most of his followers have assumed that the "taming factor" is a
"moral order" that is innate in the physical universe.

I don't subscribe to either theory.  While it may be aesthetically pleasing
to consider relational order an innate "force" in the universe, such a
notion makes the creation of subjective consciousness totally dependent on
an objective reality.  If anything makes order out of chaos it is the human
intellect and its sense of Value.  Since order and relation hold a much
higher value for man than confusion and chaos, man looks for relationships
in every experience of the world and comprehends his reality as a rational,
orderly system.

Although one can theorize that, in the absence of such a rational construct,
the universe is inherently chaotic, I see no need for this alternative.
Absent conscious awareness and there is no universe.  Actualized reality is
a dichotomy comprising awareness and otherness (being).  These contingencies
are held together by the Value of Essence as sensed by the individual.  We
don't fashion our relational world from matter in a state of chaos, nor does
chaos magically transform itself into an orderly system.  The antithesis of
physical reality is no reality -- nothingness -- which is what pure
awareness is without its object.

> All our knowledge is based on what we know.
> We can control chaos to the point we can claim it is
> not chaos by finding patterns that repeat, even if these
> patterns are unpredictable, but we can’t know these
> patterns will not change from something like the act of
> a butterfly flapping its wings.

Knowledge IS what we know.  What we know is what we intellectualize from
experience.  We are literal "nothings" acquiring the value of Essence to
make being aware.  Our relation to Essence is conditional and valuistic.
Relational existence with all its intellectualized patterns is a dichotomous
illusion.  The only true reality is the absolute Source of this illusion.

Regards,
Ham