Trying to pin down Chaos and Fractals is a lot like pushing a very full drawer closed only to have a different drawer pop open. The concepts are groundbreaking and mysterious. Just when you think you understand them and, by applying them, a bit more of the workings of the world, you are reminded that your level of understanding may be much more tenuous. Instead, you find yourself predicting only, without any understanding deeper than a surface level. Or perhaps you are postdicting, and you only have a quasi-understanding after the fact.

It’s my hope that this FractaLog serves as a place of comments, questions, and provocative speculations based on our readings in our Chaos and Fractals course. May the dialogue lead to a deeper appreciation of how we model, predict, and understand our corner of the universe.

And just maybe we can keep some of those drawers closed a little longer. But don’t be surprised if we find many more drawers nested within drawers within drawers …