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Chaos and Void
by David 'ZZYZX' Steinberg - zzyzx@ihoz.comAs odd as this may sound, mathematics has trendy areas. They start out as a branch of research that a few people are interested in, capture the fascination of the mathematical community with unexpected results, and - even on occasion - spread to the general public. When that happens, there frequently is a backlash against that branch of study; yes it is possible for mathematicians to sell out. The most recent branch to get popular acclaim, and internal sneering, is chaos theory.
Chaos Theory first became popular with non-mathematical audiences with fractals. Fractals - called that because they have fractional dimensions, rather than your usual 1 dimensional points; 2 dimensional lines, square, and circles; and three dimensional ice cubes, pez dispensers, and kind veggie burritos - are actually an interesting concept. The classic example of a real life fractal is a coastline. How far would it take to walk along the Atlantic Ocean coastline? The answer, oddly enough, depends completely on how tall you are. The smaller you are, the longer the distance would be. An ant would have to crawl all the way around every single spot where the shore moved in for an inch or two. A person could just step over those. A huge giant might be able to walk over the Chesapeake Bay, chopping off hundreds of miles. Fractals are said to be infinitely complex. What that means is that if you take a tiny piece of a fractal and zoom in on that, and then take a tiny piece of that and zoom in on it, and then repeat this hundreds or thousands or millions of times, you still will end up with a picture that has as much complexity as the one you started out with. You'll never be able to zoom in on a little piece and just see a line or a curve. As fascinating as I find all of this, this is not why fractals became well known. The reason for that can be summed up in one sentence, "Ooooooooooooooh, pretty pictures."
While fractals were the first inroad that chaos theory had into the popular consciousness, it wasn't the biggest. That claim has to belong to the "Butterfly Effect." For a system to be "chaotic" in the mathematical sense, small changes would have to have unpredictably large effects. If salary increases were chaotic, a 25 cent an hour raise, rather than giving you another $10 a week, might give you you $2000 more a week or cause you to lose your entire salary. The "Butterfly Effect" got its name from the theory that the weather could be a chaotic system. If that's true, then the wind created by the flapping of a butterfly's wings could ultimately result in a hurricane ravaging the South Pacific and bringing great surfing conditions to Hawaii.
Life itself is a chaotic system. Small events can easily lead to major life changes. Take Amanda for example. On December 28th, 1997, a friend and I talked her into going to see Phish at the Capitol Centre. Having nothing better to do, she went with us. The second song played that night was the uncommon "Cities." Amanda is a big Talking Heads fan and that sucked her in. She ended up really enjoying the show and started seeing a lot more concerts. She now spends her time on tour with a band that will remain nameless to protect her taste. Small event (Phish's setlist choices), major life change.
This musing was inspired by an event that occurred on August 20th. I wanted to get a cd changer in my car before my upcoming fall tour (Vancouver, Gorge, Portland). On a whim, I decided to buy one that day.
"How quickly can this be installed?"
"Well the soonest would normally be would be Sunday, but one of our workers accidentally came in on his day off so we're putting him to work. It will be done today."
Cool! I quickly stopped home to grab some cd's and then went for a walk while they installed it. It was done just in time for me to get down to the Safe and see the Mariners lose to Cleveland. While the game itself was boring during the middle innings, I managed to amuse myself by playing with the free Nintendo 64's. A kid challenged me to N64 baseball. Neither one of us knew how the controls worked, but we managed to get a good game going. It was the Mariners against the Mariners. I did my best Dave Niehaus voice in announcing my team's success. "Swung on and BELTED," I screamed whenever I hit the ball. A close play that I beat out at the plate got his classic call from the 95 Yankees series, "The throw to the plate is going to be.... not in TIME!!!! The Mariners are going to play.... for the American League Championship!!!! It just continues!! MY OH MY!!" Ok, so maybe it was just a 5-2 lead in N64 baseball, but you got to provide the trash talk if you're going to throw those 12 year olds off their game.
Despite the loss, I wandered out in a good mood. I decided to take the long way home so I could play with my cd player some. While driving through a slightly sketchy part of town, something caught my eye. Someone was lying down across the sidewalk. My first thought was that it was just a homeless man looking for a place to sleep, but it looked worse than that.
Morality pop quiz! You see someone apparently passed out on a public sidewalk. The correct action is:
A: Get out of the car and check to see if they are ok.
B: Get out of the car and call 911 at a local pay phone.
C: Figure he's probably sleeping and wouldn't appreciate being roused by someone if he's that tired.
I mulled over my choices. "A" bothered me some, because if he was just sleeping and I woke him up, would he attack me? What does it take to decide that a fairly busy sidewalk would be a good place to sleep? From my own experiences of living on the road, "C" was tempting. I mean if he were just really tired, and all of a sudden the cops show up and wake him up and make him move on.....
After screaming "Are you ok?" at him (to no response), I settled on "B". I had never called 911 before. When you call, they send you immediately to the police people. For a medical emergency, you have to hold for a transfer. I can see this now. "Emergency Services, how can I help you?" "My heart.... feels....." "Please hold while I transfer you to the trauma team."
Much sooner than I expected, the ambulance arrived. I kept driving around the block to see what was going to happen, worried that I just woke up some poor guy. The second time around, he was somewhat awake, but having violent convulsions. It took both of medical people to keep him held down. I was suddenly very glad that I didn't try to wake him myself. Next time around the block, he was lying flat on his back, very still. It ended up taking about 5 minutes for the team to be able to prop him to a sitting position against the wall of the building. This was no simple person who had fallen asleep. Finally, I drove around once more and both the ambulance and the guy were gone. There's a real chance that I might have saved his life, and it all happened because I decided to make the splurge purchase to get the cd player that night. If Woody had remembered that he had the day off, a man might have died. Small event, major life change.
We all have these cusps. In 1992, having graduated in the midst of a recession and having serious problems finding a job, I was living in dorm common rooms at Bard and eating by people sneaking me out food from the cafeteria. I was fighting with my family and giving serious consideration to doing the Dead's summer tour with no money. At that time though, New Mexico State University - a school that I applied to solely because of its $10 application fee, a school that had me third on their waiting list for a stipend - told me that three people had decided to go elsewhere and I would have a job with them in the fall. That is most likely what stood between me and wookieness.
Just because these events seem so unfair, deep down I believe in the existence of alternative universes. There's a universe where I picked the right numbers in that $24 New York State lotto drawing and was a multimillionaire before graduating from college. There's a universe where Windows 95 was delayed another few months and, rather than getting a support job just as my move to Seattle money ran out, I found myself back out on the streets. There's even a universe where Mitch Williams' pitch to Joe Carter in the '93 World Series was a fraction of an inch higher and he popped up at the end of Game 6.
Lately I've been having a bit of an early mid life crisis. I've been thinking back on what could have been and what should have been. While I have been thinking back on the events that prevented me from living the life of luxury or being a powerful force for change in the world, I have forgotten to remember that it easily could have been me face down on Blanchard Street while someone else drove to the Hurricane to call 911. Life is a chaotic system. Even just the ability to make small decisions - such as calling 911 or writing an annoyingly optimistic column for Jambands - can cause someone have to a major life change.
David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1993. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capitol Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html
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