Randomness and Chaos

Randomness and chaos

Are these unpredictable elements the two drivers of creativity?

Definition of chaos—complete disorder, utter confusion.

Definition of randomness—not following any prearranged order, haphazard, lacking a clear plan or expected order.

There is a very old saying—Out of Chaos comes order. Out of order comes Chaos.

We understand, at the moment, that the universe is a constantly changing and evolving “event.” Because of this, what is right at one moment may not be right in the next. The ancient Taoists said the only constant thing in the universe, is change. It is possible they meant that the seasons, the weather, their understanding of the world, were all changing all of the time.

Creativity is the use of something, or things, that exist, even if only in the mind of the creator, but is changed to present something fresh and new to the universe. Science tells us that all the materials, that form all physical matter, were present within a fraction of a second of the “big bang.” An artist uses existing paint colours to produce a new painting. A sculptor uses an existing block to carve a new shape. A writer uses existing words to write a new book. An artist who allows the brush to dictate where the colours go is using a random style to produce a new creation. A writer who just lets their mind wander and writes down what ever comes to them, is allowing random thoughts to create new text. Randomness is a creative force and so part of creation but its nature is unpredictability, so creation is built on a factor that can not be foreseen, even by the creator.

It follows that, even if the universe and all of creation (that part we are aware of), even life itself, all have a creator, there is still, within that creation, much that was unexpected and not actually designed as part of creation. Since many religious philosophies label the creator of creation as “God,” there have always been questions such as, why does God allow this disaster? Why does God allow evil in the world? Consider the possibility that evil is the result of randomness. Creation needed chaos and randomness to power its expansion but some elements within what has been created, are the results of that randomness and not a “design intention.”

Astrophysicists have described the period after the initial “big bang,” when all of the universe was still a gas cloud relatively near the actual “bang, as a time of chaos. This chaos slowly, in human time span terms, changed into order. In this “order” our solar system and the existence of life on plant earth evolved. In a few million years our sun will exhaust its fuel supply and enlarge to such an extent that Earth, along with all other planets in solar system will be returned to a gaseous state, return to chaos.

Chaos and randomness are therefore facts of life, part of the creation we humans live in. Since they are facts of life maybe we should accept and embrace them. Embracing randomness and chaos into our lives is far from easy. We may accept that lottery numbers are chosen at random but we still try and impose some order, by working out mathematical rules of chance, which tell us there is a fourteen million to one chance of winning. An attempt to impose order and predictability on randomness. A futile attempt in many ways, since the average mind can not fully comprehend the scale of this in real life terms but nevertheless a common human trait. There are very few homes where chaos rules the decor and furnishings, and probably even less where the positioning of fixtures and fittings are random. Even gardeners with a love of the natural world, will try to impose order on a plot of land. Nature reserves are managed, to ensure one species of plant or animal, do not take over completely at the expense of diversity. If we allow randomness and chaos to be in control then initially, species dominance emerges as the order from the chaos. Slowly the predominance of one species may encourage the emergence of predators to that species but it is a slow process, which humans are too impatient to accept. Over a vast area this may be manifest as selected areas have selected dominance, but it is not what we humans expect or want to see in nature. We are an evolved species, one that has evolved from nature and so we like balance.

Creativity is not only made up of chaos and randomness, Wonderful art is created by those artists who paint what they see, they control their brush work to an incredible degree. Even modernist, abstract, artists use skill to fit their creation into a canvas, they exert control over what is the final work. Nature is part of creation and nature is above all, about balance. When there is an abundance of prey, the number of hunters increases, When there is shortage, it affects all species. Adaptability does not appear to be random, balance and adaptation are the mechanisms by which order emerges from chaos.

In human life, the sheer numbers of humans mean we have to have order and regulation. Imagine the chaos on the roads if we all drove in random directions. Some humans appear to demand greater levels of control and attempt to eliminate randomness from very part of life. We call these control freaks but to some extent every human likes to exert control over their own life. Even in a religious order, where materialistic considerations are abandoned, there is still a control of day to day activity.

Accept that randomness and chaos have to exist, realise that life has many creative facets and these two elements are only part of the whole. No one and nothing are to blame for the problems we humans have with creation, we just have to get on with life, agreeing that random events are natural and we have to cope with them, or better still, see them as creative opportunities and start to use them as a means of emerging from our own personal chaos. Remember balance and adaptation are methods of getting order from chaos.