Author(s): Ziauddin Sardar

Philosophy, Politics & Current Affairs

Chaos is the most important advance in science since the advent of Quantum Theory in the early 1900s. It began with the discovery of randomness in supposedly predictable physical systems and has evolved into a new science that declares that the universe is far more unpredictable than we ever imagined. Minute changes can generate a whole array of complex events and produce immense ranges of different results, making any notion of predictability quite meaningless. Introducing Chaos shows how chaos makes its presence felt in all varieties of events, from the fluctuation of animal populations to the ups and downs of the stock market. The book also examines the roots of chaos in modern mathematics and physics and explores the relationship between chaos and complexity, the new unifying theory of biological and physical phenomena that suggests that all complex systems evolve from a few simple rules. Chaos is an astonishing and controversial theory that could dramatically change the way we see the natural world and our place in a turbulent universe.