Today, Edward Lorenz, the father of chaos theory and the man who popularized the "butterfly effect", died in Cambridge, MA at the age of 90. Click here to access his obituary.Not surprisingly, literature and film have embraced the underlying ideas of chaos theory. My favorite post-modern play, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, focuses on the mathematics behind fractals during the 1800s and contemporary times. Chaos theory also plays a large role in the movie "Pi".
While searching the wikipedia page for chaos theory, it also mentions that chaos theory is mentioned in the films "The Butterfly Effect," "Chaos", and "The Science of Sleep." I haven't seen the other two, but I don't remember any mention of chaos theory in "The Science of Sleep" - does anyone else remember it?
Here's a cool webpage on fractals. The image above is also generated by fractals.
3 comments:
I don't remember specific discussions of chaos theory in the Science of Sleep either, but there is the continual underlying theme of whether things that are happening are random or a result of an initial stimulus.
I think you can make a very broad argument that the way Stephane's dreams form is similar to the fractals expand and develop (from a visual standpoint the paint swirls in the opening sequence even resemble fractals). They seem fractured and chaotic at first but the closer you examine them they follow a distinct pattern that you can trace back to his memories and experiences as forming the structural basis. A straightforward explanation of the dreams doesn't fit, but they aren't random at all.
Great post but I hated "Arcadia", I'm so sorry.
Josh - That's a great interpretation of Stephan's dreams. I kinda had an idea floating around in my head like that, too, but I hadn't really given it enough thought to come up with any coherent interpretation of my own.
Alex- It's OK; I don't think any less of you.
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