Do Things Ever Stop Being Random?
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Do things ever stop being random?
During a group critique, I was asked if things ever stop being random. I have replied by saying that if one interferes with the way that something develops and controls it then it will stop being random. I gave an example of a tree fence which had all of its bunches trimmed at the same length. I explained that each brunch would have followed its own route if one did not cut it in order to control the way it looks. By having someone interfering in the growing process of a brunch it stops it from growing up randomly. Nevertheless, thinking more carefully I have asked myself “do tree brunches grow randomly”? The tree brunches may seem chaotic when growing however, they are not random. Everything in nature follows its own pattern according to different factors such as water, sun, and wind. These patterns are called fractals. John Briggs points out that in 1960s and 1970s an IBM researcher, Benoit Mandelbrot, invented a new geometry, which he called “fractal” geometry. Mandelbrot coined the term “fractal” to suggest “fractured” and “fractional” – a geometry that focuses on broken, wrinkled, and uneven shapes. Furthermore, Briggs explains that patterns in nature are self similar. This means that as viewers peer deeper into the fractal image, they notice that the shapes seen at one scale are similar to the shapes seen in the detail at another scale. (Briggs, 1992, p. 23).
Consequently, things need to first be random in order to stop being random. Chaos and unpredictability are not similar terms. Weather can be consider a chaotic situation because it characterized by “variability, general dependability, and moment to moment unpredictability”. (Briggs, 1992, p.13). However, Briggs explains that the weather at its different scales displays a self-similarity, a fractal structure. (Briggs, 1992, p.23). Therefore, a situation might consider being chaotic because it is unpredictable (earthquake) or if it is predictable it is out of control (weather-tornado), or if controlled is disastrous (fire). Nevertheless, for chaos to occur it needs self-organization. According to Briggs “when a chaotic thunderstorm self-organizes into a tornado, it leaves behind it a fractal shape of its destruction. Even the Byzantine intricacy of snowflakes is the fractal result of a chaotic process combined with the sixfold