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Re: [OM] Warmer? Cooler? [was IMG: March 1st Snow in Mid-South]

Subject: Re: [OM] Warmer? Cooler? [was IMG: March 1st Snow in Mid-South]
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 08:58:09 -0600
>
> Chaos and Complexity Theories are very frustrating to those who grew up
> with Cartesian/Newtonian ideas of how the universe works.
>


There is a good argument that "Chaos Theory" is just plain bad science. It's
a handy way of explaining away anomalies that haven't been adequately
researched. For example:

A traffic study that shows that 5000 vehicles pass a spot in the road every
day. This is determined by number of vehicles passed in a sample period
extrapolated out.  However, on every Friday night during the fall, there is
a burst of traffic of an additional 2000 vehicles.

"Chaos Theory" is used to explain away this discrepency as just "one of
those things".

"True Science" will attempt to figure out why this occurs and accounts for
it.  In my example, the 2000 vehicle burst is caused by vehicles coming and
going to the high school football game.

I've obviously simplified my example, but I maintain that Chaos Theory is
poor science and a way of saying "There is something weird going on here
that I haven't quantified yet."

AG (Chaos) Schnozz
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