[MD] Crystallising Chaos.

[Case]

[Platt]
Thanks for a interesting explanation of current chaos theory. While in
recent years scientists have garnered a measure of predictability in
previously unpredictable chaos systems, beyond a certain point discernable
patterns go out of range of our cognitive tools -- the uncertainty principle
being a prime case in point.  Add to that Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and
you have two walls beyond which the human mind cannot as yet penetrate. To
my mind, that unknown and so far unknowable territory beyond the walls is
the realm of chaos. 

[Case]
I guess the way I see it Gödel, uncertainty and chaos bring to center stage
the elephant hiding under the carpet, the water in our fish bowl. I think it
is fair to say that what we do as creatures is absorb information to
structure the past so that we can model the future. We are successful as
individuals and as a species to the extent that our models work. One of the
insights that we should be getting out of these "new" ideas is that we can
never achieve perfect prediction of the future and that future is neither
predetermined nor predeterminable. There is no destiny, manifest or
otherwise.

[Platt]
To throw in some political considerations as is my wont, it occurs to 
me that in looking at processes and systems scientists typically ignore 
or are bothered by the individuals within the system. For example, the 
one raindrop that doesn't follow the established chaotic pattern is 
considered an anomaly of no importance, or the one rapid faucet drip 
that constitutes the "slop" is consider undesirable and becomes 
regulated by an aerator. Carry over that mindset to the political realm 
is, IMO, very common and extremely dangerous to all who consider the 
individual human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness 
to be unalienable. Pirsig's focus on a single individual, Lila, as the 
main foil in his metaphysics shows more than words that his disposition 
isn't anything like the  system/process oriented scientific view. 
Again, a matter of values. 

[Case]
You are right that for the most part in modern society we are all treated as
statistically objects. Telephone solicitors know that if they make enough
calls someone will take whatever they offer. WalMart knows they can ignore
specialized merchandise in favor what the average shopper needs. The entire
capitalist enterprise is aimed at quantifying, pinpointing, stereotyping,
labeling and ultimately selling something to you. I see the private sector
as far more guilty in this regard than the public sector. 

But you rightly point out that outliers get ignored. This is sad because in
the long run the highest good in evolutionary terms is diversity. We know
what is working now but in the future things may be different and in fact
the weirdos may inherit the earth. When T-Rex was, literally, looking down
on the tree shrews, who would have thought that the rodents and primates
would so soon be up to their eyeballs in dino skeletons? It is good to think
outside the box least you get buried inside the box.