Edge of chaos

I was recently intrigued by a book called Deep Simplicity by John Gribbon. The essense of the book is that, whilst on the surface there is limitless complexity and diversity, underlying this there are repeating patterns of immense simplicity, at all levels from galactic to human or smaller. Chaos theory shows this - and there are many simple experiments that can be done that are based on very simple rules, but which generate limitless complexity. Example, the sandpile model - when sand is dropped onto a table slowly, the table will slowly cover with sand, this bit is not very interesting, but then once the table can take no more sand, it starts to fall off the edges. From then, as sand continues to fill the table, and sand continues to fall off the edges, the system remains in a state of constant instability. What happens to individual grains of sand - whether, when, or where they move within the pile or off the pile - remains totally unpredictable. This is as true in our 'reality' as it is in computerised models of such a system. That is the nature of chaos theory.

How does this relate to this blog? Well, life is essentially a system in this chaotic state, and consciousness is the amount of tension in an energy-buffering system such as the sandpile. ..