Human Beings as Chaotic Systems Fractal （人类作为混沌系统分形）.pdf

Ives 1 Human Beings as Chaotic Systems By Crystal Ives One of the most commonly used metaphors in our society is the human body as a machine. At lunch we “fill our tanks” to “keep our motors running.” Our hearts beat like “clockwork.” A complex problem sets our “gears turning.” Is the body simply a machine, as our reductionist tradition and modern language implies? Can we view ourselves as a conglomeration of replaceable “parts”? Discoveries in chaos theory are leading scientists to believe that this is not the case. The intricacies of the human body have amazed scientists for generations. Innumerable, entwined feedback loops regulate our internal processes, keeping us within the narrow bounds needed for survival. Despite this regulation, our systems are aperiodic and unpredictable in the long term. We are incredibly ordered on several scales of magnitude, but irregularly so. Our bodies conform to a set of non-linear, dynamic rules. The human body is not a simple machine, but an amazingly complex chaotic system. I. What is a Chaotic System? From the moment the founders of chaos theory first began their studies, the discipline has grown in science and is, as some researchers argue, the direction of the future. The contributions of Poincaré, Lorenz, and Mandlebrot have led to our understanding of what chaos is and its importance in the natural world. Though the study of predictable, linear systems makes up the bulk of a classical education, those systems are by far the exception, not the rule. Most natural systems play by the rules of chaos. A butterfly in a meadow flaps its wings and a storm is born on the Pacific Ocean. This classic example of a key aspect of chaotic systems is known as the “butterfly effect.” Chaotic