Great show.
The crucial 'take home' quotes for pondering:
i) Where the geese are flying in a flock (about 75% of the way through):
Quote:
We know they’ll produce a kind of pattern, but we can’t predict the exact shapes.
The big question is: can nature’s ability to turn simplicity into complexity in this mysterious and unpredictable way, explain why life exists ?
Can it explain how a universe of simple dust, can turn into human beings ? How inanimate matter can spawn intelligence ? ….
If nature’s rules are unpredictable, should we give up ?
Absolutely not !
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and then, right at the end:
ii) Inherently Unpredictable:
Quote:
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All the complexity of the universe, all its infinite richness, emerges from mindless, simple rules, repeated over and over again. But remember, powerful as though this process is, it is also inherently unpredictable. So, although I can confidently tell you that the future will be amazing, I can also say with scientific certainty, that I have no idea what it holds.
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Deeply profound in the context of considering life elsewhere in the universe.
Inherently unpredictable … so we should consider this perspective before making statements like:
Quote:
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There are so many stars and thus planets out there, there must be other instances of life.
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This is a
prediction, and can be
proven in modern complexity mathematics and science, to be completely invalid.
Tremendous stuff.
Thank you Alan Turing, Benoit Mandelbrot, Edward Lorenz and many others.
Giants in the field of Chaos and Complexity. We still can't even conceive of the true implications of what they uncovered for us all.
Cheers