monkey, it interests me! Though I'm only half-way through so far. The author seems to have given an excellent description of some of Feigenbaum's original insights -- E.g., sensitive dependence on initial conditions; simple, "self-replicating," periodically iterated rules.
I gather the simple rule is a mathematical equation into which numbers are "fed." Except I don't think the word "self-replicating" is quite accurate because, in Feigenbaum's original experiment, the next successive number generated by the equation refers back to the iteration immediately preceding it, and must take that number into account (i.e., by adding it to itself). Then comes the next iteration, with the new number "fed" into the equation, etc., etc. It's a "feedback loop." Ad infinitum.
This is fascinating stuff, monkey. Give me some time to digest it a bit. I may be back. best, bb.
That's the gist of it. Cellular Automata are the same concept, maybe even simpler, since equations aren't required to appreciate them. It's good to remember occasionally that nature doesn't do math, but really excels at recess.
The social movements of the 20th century - feminism, racial diversity, sexual freedom, the welfare state - were all deconstructive. Using these movements to create a new society is like building a house with dynamite. It's why Derrida is so flip; he can't answer the dumb s--- question by the science major fulfilling an elective: If you deconstruct everything, what's left?
One answer to that question is a dark age, perhaps the end of man. But chaos gives a strange hope. The world is not descending, but breaking up (who cares how) to rebuild again. There are patterns and structures, swirls and eddies all around us, jousting, combining, most fading away, but something is filling the landscape.