ABSTRACT
Attractors describe global patterns of behavior displayed by a system. For example, the control parameter might be the speed of energy or information flow through the system. At low rates of energy or information flow, the system is drawn to a point attractor in which it displays one form of behavior, namely a stable equilibrium state. At higher rates of energy or information flow, the system may switch to a periodic attractor. This too is a stable equilibrium state in which behavior cycles between two values. Then, at very high rates of energy or information flow, the system is attracted to explosive growth or even random patterns of behavior. In other words, behavior becomes highly unstable and the system may disintegrate. Furthermore, at some critical level of the control parameter, between levels that lead to equilibrium attractors and those that lead to instability, behavior is drawn to a strange attractor.
