The four mists of chaos

8 August 2010 • out of context
tags: chaos, death, quotes

The     Four     Mists     of     Chaos,
                    the     North,     the     East,
                                the     West,
                       and     the     South,
                        went     to     visit     Chaos
    himself.
  He     treated     them     all     very     kindly
                and     when     they     were     
thinking     of     leaving,
         they     consulted     among     themselves
    how     they     might     repay     his     
hospitality.
   Since     they     had     noticed     that     he
     had                  no      holes      in      his
     body,                                    as      they
     each      had                  (eyes,      nose,
     mouth,      ears,      etc.),
               they      decided                  each
     day                  to      provide      him
             with      an      opening.
                                  At      the      end
    of      seven      days,
           Kwang-tse      tells      us,
                         Chaos                    died.

Indeterminancy by John Cage

I accept chaos [as my personal savior]

22 May 2010 • out of context
tags: chaos, cinema, quotes

I’m Not There by Todd Haynes

Noise & Chaos

3 February 2010 • out of context
tags: books, chaos, noise, patterns, quotes, uncertainty

“Scientists often say that any uncertainty in an observation is due to noise, without really defining exactly what the noise is, other than that which obscures our vision of whatever we are trying to measure, be it the length of a table, the number of rabbits in a garden, or the midday temperature. Noise gives rise to observational uncertainty, chaos helps us to understand how small uncertainties can become large uncertainties, once we have a model for the noise. Some of the insights gleaned from chaos lie in clarifying the role(s) noise plays in the dynamics of uncertainty in the quantitative sciences. Noise has become much more interesting, as the study of chaos forces us to look again at what we might mean by the concept of a ‘True’ value.”

Chaos: A Very Short Introduction by Leonard Smith