We then go on to discuss the nature of the chaos phenomenon, which, we argue, was a conceptual reconfiguration as much as a sociodisciplinary convergence.

After reviewing the historiography of dynamical systems theory from Poincaré to the 1960s, we highlight the pioneering work of a few individuals (Steve Smale, Edward Lorenz, David Ruelle). In this paper, we flesh out the historiographical tensions arising from these confrontations: longue-durée history and revolution abstract mathematics and the use of mathematical techniques in various other domains. I show here (but not in the book or Wiki) that this is the start of the Death of Newtonian Physics and the Calculus: a TRUE REVOLUTION.īetween the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, the wide recognition that simple dynamical laws could give rise to complex behaviors was sometimes hailed as a true scientific revolution impacting several disciplines, for which a striking label was coined-“chaos.” Mathematicians quickly pointed out that the purported revolution was relying on the abstract theory of dynamical systems founded in the late 19th century by Henri Poincaré who had already reached a similar conclusion. It is the science of the global nature of systems. Chaos is everywhere, it is switching the simple mathematical models of classical physics. The viewpoint changed from static 'state' to dynamic process: becoming rather than being. Key to the solution was the early use of computers to repeat simple calculations, very many times.

The book describes how this tough problem was cracked by five theoreticians described herein with a novelist's eye. Implicitly, it shows how Newtonian mathematics has constrained physics (and science in general) to make simplifying assumptions that enable the calculus to become the universal tool-set of the scientific viewpoint. Now, this phenomenon helps explain the shape of clouds, smoke, water eddies, mountain ranges and coastlines. This concept opens up a new view of nature: where previously randomness had to be forced in to explain the unpredictable variations, now chaos is seen as spanning both order (patterns) and disorder. This is a difficult new concept that is still evolving but it popularized the term: Butterfly Effect and introduced new concepts to a popular audience, such as fractals and introduced pioneering thinkers, such as Feigenbaum and Mandelbrot it inspired the novel and movie Jurassic Park.

This book describes the birth of the new theory of Chaos.

Chaos james gleick review