Below is the introduction to this
exellent documentary from BBC4 [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pv1c3].
A working knowledge of Chaos Theory is essential to the understanding of how the
Minessence Values Framework gives insight into human behaviour--values'
systems are the strange attractor that shapes the behaviour of
individuals, teams, cultures and the institutions humanity have created.
Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science
gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning
to understand.
It turns out that chaos theory answers a question that mankind has asked for
millennia - how did we get here?
In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the
great mysteries of science - how does a universe that starts off as dust end up
with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder?
It's a mindbending, counterintuitive and for many people a deeply troubling idea.
But Professor Al-Khalili reveals the science behind much of beauty and structure
in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of
God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics. Amazingly, it turns
out that the mathematics of chaos can explain how and why the universe creates
exquisite order and pattern.
Footnote:
This documentary, though an extremely good overview of chaos and self-organising
systems, does not cover the important area of strange attractors. Strange
attractors are crucially important as it is through them that we can understand
the behaviour of complex systems be they the weather, the system of global
economics, the spread of bushfires, two people in a relationship, a team, an
organisation, society, etc. When dealing with human systems, their strange
attractor is their values system. That is one of the main applications of our
Values Inventory.
The video on the next page, though somewhat technical in parts, at least gives a
glimpse of the nature of strange attractors.
|