"Chaos is the natural order of the universe"

"Chaos is the natural order of the universe"

- Joane Cardinal-Schubert (Blackfoot name: Ponokaki = Elk Woman) - Visual Artist, Writer, Director of Video, NativeTheatre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Some comments about this motto (which emphasizes the word "chaos"
instead of the word "randomness"):

From a message posted by the author of this webpage (Jim Till) to the 
HBG discussion forum on August 23, 1998, on the subject: Re: a serious 
question concerning the motto [the HBG discussion forum is no longer 
available].
   
Perhaps this motto should be regarded as an artist's version of a
speculation (attributed to James Marti in a webpage What is Chaos?
linked to the Santa Fe Institute's website): "Chaos might be the new 
world order"?
   
This same webpage includes a comment that: "There is frequent confusion
between chaos and randomness".


From another message, which the author posted anonymously to the HBG
discussion forum on Sept. 9, 1998, on the subject: A quotation about 
chaos and randomness:

An excerpt from another link at the Principia Cybernetica website:
   
"For example in the physical and mathematical study of chaotic systems a
framework which implicitly disregards some level of detail as "random",
is so familiar that it has become a background assumption". 


Some notes about the origin of this motto:

The origin of this saying is outlined in a part of an email message sent
to me by Joane Cardinal-Schubert on August 6, 1998.  It begins with a
story that she heard when she was about 8 years old:



>...the story went:  a man invented the most powerful lens in the
>world....what a responsibility ...what to look at first...he decided to
>look at the most important thing to mankind...a drop of water.  He looked
>through the lens and saw a beautiful woman resting beside a huge lake under
>a tree..(sorry syntax) oh he looked very hard at this pleasant
>scene....suddenly it disappeared.....the water had dried up....that is all
>I remember of the story ...I was 8 or so...but it and my early observations
>made me look at the world and it's place in the universe so differently.
>
>What I thought ...if...we, on this earth are that small...what if we are
>only a small part, an insignificant part of the universe....what if our
>Universe is really as large as a drop of water.....what if our time is
>that short......why are we so arrogant....etc...etc.... so combined with
>all of those time lapses, and over laps...and layered thinking, I altered
>the sayings...there is order in chaos   [from Douglas J. Cardinal, circa
>1990] and ..... there is a natural order to all things, (an) order in nature
>[Joseph T. Cardinal circa 1948], ... . to chaos is the natural order
>of all things... to 'chaos is the natural order of the universe'
>[circa 1995, after breast cancer].
>(NB Jim ..my thought processes always take this long....47 years....smile)
>
>Right now my body is chaotic, I have what people call cancer....all that
>means is that some of my cells want to go on for ever....Jaune Quick to See
>Smith says a culture that doesn't change dies...referring to Native
>Culture's continuum....I reason...why should cancer be any
>different....this is what led me to believe from the beginning I have to
>live with it.....it is a part of me...no different than the chaos we see in
>the Universe.....in the natural order of things.


Copyright 1998 by Joane Cardinal-Schubert and Jim Till

Posted August 8, 1998


Douglas J. Cardinal, who contributed to the evolution of the saying 'chaos
is the natural order of the universe' is Joane Cardinal-Schubert's
brother, and a very well-known architect (see: www.djcarchitect.com).
Joseph T. Cardinal (b1908, d1970) is their father.


If you are interested in the Breast-Cancer mailing list, please visit my
webpage at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ca916/


Joane's website is: Joane Cardinal-Schubert RCA


Jim Till, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This page was last modified on 01 January, 2004