I finished the book “Chaos” by James Gleick today. It took me a while to get through it – such a heavy-going book, but i’m very glad i made it to the end. For about half the book i was thinking, “Well that’s very nice … but … so what?!” but i think i got it by the end. My opinion of the term ‘chaos’ has certainly changed significantly in that i now regard chaos as ordered and meaningful; quite different to randomness. I read an article on Madeline McCann that described the investigation procedure as ‘chaotic’ and for me it really meant something very different than it would have done a month ago; definitely not what the journalist intended to convey!
There is a nice little summary of the book here for anyone who would like to know what it’s about but doesn’t want to go into all the intricate details.
I warn you though, i’m a bit fanatical: i made a dragon curve today out of a piece of paper and an ignorant colleague called it a Mandelbrot! I was like: “A dragon curve has absolutely nothing to do with the Mandelbrot set! For a start, the Mandelbrot set uses complex numbers!!” So if you want to sound knowledgeable, be sure you know the basics!! ;)