Determinism and Chaos: A Time Perspective

Chaos cannot be understood without constant reference to time. A better understanding of the 3 main abstractions that we use in relation to time (Past, Present and Future) is of basic importance. However chaos is mostly significant for our evaluation of future events: any hope for rigorously deterministic forecasting is not anymore realistic. But in any case, the chaotic crimps into general determinism do not destroy it utterly, because no event totally escapes from the structural and functional coherence of the system in which it occurs. Moreover, in complex systems, hierarchized levels of organization imply a hierarchy of determinisms and the most global ones impose some constraints upon the lesser ones. This leads to adaptability within coherence. An arithmetic model is proposed and some historic and present examples are given. As a final caveat, the uses but also the possible abuses ofthe concep ofchaos are discussed.