> There are many chaotic
>systems that are actually very resilient, if locally
>unstable, including our brains (when we aren't bonkers).
Also including *when we are bonkers*, I would argue. I suggest recognisable mental illness is a phase shift into a different pattern of social adaptation of a non-voluntary nature, which requires care by the society.
The heart is also a usually very resilient system which works in conformity with chaos theory.
Gleick in his book on Chaos, says "Libchaber believed that biological systems used their nonlinearity as a defence against noise. The transfer of energy by proteins, the wave motion of the heart's electricity, the nervous system - all these kept their versatility in a noisy world. Libchaber hoped that whatever structure underlay fluid flow [under convectional forces in his tiny cell] would prove robust enough for his experiment to detect."
As well as the argument about noise, I think it is also a serious proposition that our brains are balanced on the edge of chaos in order to be exquisitely adaptable to the environment, especially the social environment in which we exist. It is a continual battle for all of us to avoid "losing it".
Also for social institutions - Barkley's point here. That is why socialists should be interested in biological and social methods of control.
Chris Burford London