But if chaos teaches physicists that the truly simple can nevertheless look complicated, the critical state teaches them that the truly complicated can behave in ways that are remarkably simple. … The basic organization of any substance poised in the critical state between two phases depends very little on the precise nature of the elements involved. There is a profound universality at work, which makes it possible to understand literally thousands of utterly different collectives in terms of simple mathematical games that share the same skeletal logic. | |
… One of the deepest discoveries in physics of the past two decades is that in nonequilibrium systems the critical state often arises on its own. | |
… It does not seem normal and lawlike for long periods of calm to be suddenly and sporadically shattered by cataclysm, and yet it is. This is, it seems, the ubiquitous character of the world. | |
— Mark Buchanan | |
From his book: “Ubiquity“ | |
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On This Day In: | |
2014 | Dawn, n. |
2013 | Ouch! |
2012 | Just Lookin’ Around |
Still Growing | |
2011 | But Do You Want To? |
The Critical State
May 27, 2015 by kmabarrett
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