ABSTRACT
Chaos is part of a much bigger and more important revolution in understanding than has been popularized currently. Chaos is but the tip of the physical science branch of this change. Chaos, self-organization theory, and the thermodynamics of evolution make up a 'nonlinear revolution' because nonlinearity lies behind the insights that each of these divisions brings to the fore. The theme for this revolution is that when we broaden science with insights of the nonlinear world, we get a very different picture of how the world works. The nonlinear revolution creates a very non-Newtonian image of the world. The first message of chaos is that physical and lawful does not mean predictable, controllable, or completely knowable. This alone shakes the classical firmament. Thus, an evolving ecological universe is lawful and physical but not completely predictable, controllable, or knowable. It is a bit more illusive, more endlessly mysterious than a Newtonian world.
