joegoda: (DrDee)
joegoda ([personal profile] joegoda) wrote2009-03-28 12:24 am

Strange Attractors.

These concepts have been bubbling in my mind for a while now. There is, in mathematical topography, a wonderful thing called Attractors. If my understanding of them is correct, then Attractors are individual points that, given time, will come together to create a set. In time, this set may break and spin apart, but in time, the individual points will come back together again.


I'm seeing this in real life as well.

A family, a club, or even a relationship is an example of Attractors in real life. Indeed, it's why we say we're attracted to a person or persons. It may be that the physical attractor was what gave rise to the mathematical label.

Still, I've been giving some thought to this rather unusual Family of Choice I'm involved in. I'm not sure that everyone has one, a Family of Choice. Then again, I'm not sure that anyone lacks one, either. Perhaps it is just that this group tends to be more vocal and giving this loose collection of tight friends the FoC name tag. Perhaps the possibility for all people to be part of a set of Attractors exist, and it is just that some don't recognize it, or for one reason or another, the paths of their lives carry them away from that set.

Regardless, this particular group of Attractors is something I've focused on recently. I think I blame our far away members, DocJeff and Capi for this. Do remember that blame is not always a negative thing. In this case, it merely means catalytic. It's like saying you get what you deserve. Sometimes we deserve good things, and I hope you get them.

Now, onto the oddity that exists in my mind:

As it has been said, Attractors are individual points that, given time, will form a Set. If there is a reason for this, some motivation for the Set to occur is not the point of this discussion. In fact, I'm almost certain that there is always a reason for a set to happen, even if that reason is just that we all got on the same bus at the same time. I leave whatever your reason is to your determination.

With me, in particular, because in a very subjective sense, I can only speak for myself, my true Set is Tim, Sherry and myself. This is not to slight the rest of this family. But my Set occurred and became stable long before the creation of this larger Super Set we belong to.

This Set of BP&G, because that is who our Archetypes are, is very stable because it consists of three points. Three points denote a plane, which is a very stable form indeed. In fact, it is the first prime stable form. One might argue that a single point is the most stable, although I suspect that may not be true. A single point tends to seek out others, and will, if not finding company quickly fade away. No stability there. One is, after all, the loneliest number.

This prime Set of mine came about because, given time, it had to. There was no choice in it. We knew each other and orbited each other and, given time, it was a Universal Necessity that our Set create. This may, however, be just my own bias, and if so, I accept it as such. I don't believe all that much in destiny, but I also do not believe in coincidence. Where does that leave me? The Universal Necessity, which means it is something that the Universe requires for a stable reality, and therefore the creation of pathways occur so the requirement is met.

To illustrate the concept of Universal Necessity, look at a situation in your life where you may have been tempted to ask "How in the world did I get here?" In truth, and if you are honest with yourself, you can travel back across the path of your life, you can identify the choices you made that carried you to exactly where you are now.

Each choice was made of your own free will, even though it may not have seemed so at the time. Each choice moved you along the path that had, at some point, the exact results of the situation you are examining. No other results could have happened, due to the culmination of the path and choices made.

Was it Universal Necessity, or free will. Predestination or just a collection of circumstances?

What if the answer is yes to all of the above?

Due to the nature of the Multiverse, any conceivable choice that could be made was, indeed, made. There is a theory that every choice made creates a breakaway point wherein another path is created in a different universe. A Multiverse.

So, in theory anyway, it is conceivable that my Set never developed in some other universe. I don't feel badly for that particular me. I don't feel much for him, at all. That is his life and his choice, and I'm pretty sure he's doing the best he can with what he has and, due to his nature, has created his own Set.

So, tossing all the other possible realities aside, ignoring Multiversal derivatives, I became engrossed with the Set, the smaller Sets and the rather large Super Set that comprise this Family of Choice. I have a belief that there wasn't much choice in this family. I have a belief it was a Universal Necessity. It is something that had to be, pure and simple, because of the choices made that led to it's creation. It isn't the Family that was the choice, but the pathways taken that led to the Family. It is more a Family of Necessity, from my viewpoint, because it is something that had to be.

It's all because of Attractors, you see. Any one of us, if asked 5 years ago if we could forsee this Super Set, this Family of Necessity happening, would say no. If anyone says yes, I will call them a liar, because I'm mean like that.

But the Attractors were already at work in our individual pointy lives. The Attractors were already accumulating choices and moving us all along our individual pointy paths so that this was a thing that must be, given time.

Each of us made choices to be with this person, opposed to that person. To make this life choice opposed to that life choice. To take up this hobby and interest as opposed to that hobby and interest.

These choices we made moved us to be parts of the Sets that we recognize as being our very best friends, our lifelong companions, our mates. Pure examples are familiar to all or most of us. Becky and Riley. Julie and Eric. Susi and Bruce. Larger Sets, like Queen's Gambit and the White Hart crew are examples, but those move and change on occasion. The dynamics of those Sets does not make them less of a Set. It makes them a special type of Set. A set of Strange Attractors.

Mathematically, Strange Attractors carry the same properties as Attractors; i.e. individual points that, given time, will form a set, but these Sets carry the extra characteristic of Chaos and Change. They are dynamic Sets, while no less stable, will move and change as the pathways of the individual points move and change. So it is with human beings and their Sets.

In all of our lives there are those who come in, stay awhile and then move away. In all of our lives we have those who are part of our Set or part of our Super Set who seem to thrive on Chaos. These are the elements of the Strange Attractors, and they will, by Universal Necessity, be a part of our Family of Choice. They are required because the larger a Set becomes, the more complex a SuperSet is, the more the Strange Attractors, with their element of Chaos, have to be there. To have a SuperSet that does not contain Strange Attractors would be incredibly unusual. Not impossible. Perhaps not even improbable. But, where humans are concerned, highly unusual.

In fact, the existence of Strange Attractors in a particular Set causes all the Attractors in that Set to become Strange Attractors, because the Chaos factor creates harmonious resonances among the other individuals of that Set. As long as the individual points are inclusive in the SuperSet, they will all be Strange Attractors.

Once the SuperSet spins apart, and the individual sets and points fall away, then the Strange Attractors carry far less weight and the effect is far less Chaotic. Keep in mind that Chaos is not a bad thing, by and of itself. It is through Chaos that growth occurs, that learning occurs. Chaos can be a very useful tool, when applied in the proper places and using the right leverage.

But once the individual Sets spin away onto their own individual paths, the Chaotic elements that are contained in the SuperSet of the Family of Choice may have far less effect, and the stability that is normally existent in the Set is restored.

There are times, however, when the Chaotic elements will actually cause individual Sets to spin apart and the points that make up that individual Set will follow their own paths. The Set will be no more, and the individual points will fall away.

If that occurs, then that particular Set was going to spin apart regardless, due to either an inherent instability or the nature of the Set itself. Most Sets tend to spin apart given enough time, just as they came together, given enough time. It is the nature of individuals points to follow their own paths, and sometimes those paths will lead us away from the Set. It is natural and normal.

The SuperSet, this Family of Choice, is an unusual Set, in that, being comprised of not only smaller Sets but also individual points as well as Strange Attractors, all elements can come and go as they please, without affecting the stability of the whole.

Granted, in every SuperSet, there is a Seed Set, a Set that brings all the other Sets together. It is difficult to recognize exactly which Set it is that is the Seed Set, because the obvious is not always the the true catalyst. The obvious choice is only the obvious choice due to the circumstances of subjectivity.

It is the seed set that creates the Catalytic element that brings the elements of the SuperSet together. The interesting thing about this is that even with the removal of the seed Set, or even the dissolution of the Seed Set, the SuperSet continues. This is due in part to the very same Strange Attractors that can create the very same Chaos and discord that threaten to break individual sets apart. It is this Chaos that can even create entirely new Sets or Subsets of the SuperSet.

Okay... I will leave this babbling where it is. It's 3 am and I suspect I should go to sleep. I can't promise that I won't write more on this later. But I can promise that I might.

[identity profile] ericcaptdrake.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 10:19 am (UTC)(link)
Starting with one. Being that I am. Also a prime 3 within myself I start the circle of 3 and in a relative quick adding of 2 others make 3 or 6 being that they the 2 added are 3 as well totaling 9 with me added, and then of course equaling out 3 3's when broke down again being of course 1 or the 3. This set being a group but experiencing itself through those included in the set. Perhaps awakening an understanding of the 1 or allowing the giving into exploring the desire to understand the unknown, which is perhaps in its core the set of 3 or one being the likeness or difference of self. The communication or event being of the knowledge of that understanding being divided into the begining, middle, then the end or conclusion or understanding (also 3 by the way). The understanding that we have a choice to begin, or spiral away is in itself the begining of a new set and thus a possibility to be a seed of the next set spiraling toward the possible Catalytic element of a new Super Set or is it just a continuation of the original Super set that has yet to occur but will when the attractor or event allows for it to. So honestly the idea of predestination, Universal necessity, or just a collection of circumstances is not the conclusion or answer but the question. Being that understanding the 3 or the you which is the me or we is in my humble opinion understanding...... It matters not how the understanding or knowledge is grasped or the conclusion or answer as in when that answer or question ends then we should stop existing or have ceased to begin again and that is a true end of the set.

and I find it interesting that you ended at 3am as well.

Seeing you now & soon brother.

[identity profile] ladyniniane.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you've just created a readable thesis of the mathematical properties of Chaos Theory. ;-)

And I agree. I will add a hypothesis that one requirement of connecting (connectable) Attractors is that they be grouped in odd numbers, not even - because even numbers tend to polarize and break apart forcefully, whereas odds form stable corners, ones that reinforce each other rather than pull apart.

I like your dark-of-the-night thinking...

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 04:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, this is stuff to talk about at Pub. Wish you were here, brother.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I concur with the odd number arrangement because, well... it's true. In human terms, the Duality of a set is an illusion and not stable at all. The most a set of 2 can do is an orbit and any element that is introduced that influences the orbit of either element will create the Chaos set.

Besides, I think that's why Primes are all odd numbers - because they are Stable and Indivisible. Well, except by one and themselves, of course. Those divisions, however, do not reduce the set. Those divisions either reinforce the stability or destroy the set altogether.

Yep, yep. This is good not quite in your cups thinking. Or, just normal thinking for me.

[identity profile] capi.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:18 pm (UTC)(link)
You are an unemployed natural philosopher... could make a LOTTA money at university if you had the right stack of degrees to stand on. *piffle* Like THOSE matter!!

((( fierce hugs )))

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm employed, thank you very much! Just not as a philosopher. but that's okay, cuz the ones that get paid are paid way, way too much for pointing out the obvious. Like Dr. Phil, cuz that's all he is.

I like it as it is, sis. Means I can babble and nobody hold me accountable for my babble. Once you start getting paid for this stuff, people expect you to start being right!

[identity profile] motherpockets.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I fear this is too mathematical for me to read thoroughly; all I can say is that when I met you the second time, after meeting you for maybe 5 minutes at White Hart the year before, I knew you. Understand that I have face blindness! It is not unusual for me not to recognize people I've known for years, and fortunately, I have friends who will tell me, covertly, who people are at social gatherings. You, I knew immediately; not because I recognized your face, but because my heart recognized your heart.

It's probably a Pockets thing!

[identity profile] capi.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
*L* That's the beauty of it, bro!! Those highly paid (over-paid) philosopher guys?? Nobody expects 'em to be right!! *L* Hardly anybody even *listens* to them, even fewer understand 'em, so how can anybody hold 'em accountable? Besides, they *live* to argue!! *LOL* It's not about being right....

*grin* Love you to the moon and back....

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
It is, indeed a Pockets thing, but it is also that we may be part of the same set or group. There is a philosophical concept that deals with the idea of splinter souls, which means that a Soul... or Universal Necessity... may splinter into many individual parts, and thereby increase the ability to do whatever job is required of it during this particular life cycle. You might be recognizing me because, on a far grander scale, I am you... or at least a part of you.

I'm suspecting you and I may have some adventure ahead of us, or it may have just been a necessity that we find and recognize each other.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Good thing Tim found that Mothership, huh? Cuz now we can go to the Stars and Back!

Love you too, Sis!

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
So... you're a hummer?

[identity profile] capi.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
.... *together*!

(((( fierce hugs ))))

I love you soooooooooo much. *cries just a little*

Thank you, dear heart. Thank you. Just... thank you.

[identity profile] motherpockets.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I quite agree! I'm looking forward to getting to know you better in person at OKRF!! What you described in mathematical terms above, I have always thought of as soul families, which is similar to your splinter souls. We have some fun times ahead, I expect!

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
by the way, I actually liked the @ symbol at the end of the Pockets thing. Make me thing of the Trademark Sign, as in "Oh that? That's just a Pockets Thing©"

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Well... it's actually theoretical terms, which include some math stuff. It's sort of one of the points within Chaos Theory. I try to not talk much math, because my brain just doesn't hold it well. Math that is.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Well of course together!~ Is there any other way?

Thank you, lil sis. The world would definitely be a lot more dim if you weren't here.

[identity profile] motherpockets.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent! It shall be our trademark, then!

[identity profile] motherpockets.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, my brain doesn't hold math well, either. I have a friend who says I'm "math anxious." (After I told her I was math phobic.) She was quite correct! Stems from my childhood--long story there! I love logic, hate math--how's that for an oxymoron?

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Believe it or not, there's only a partial relation between math and logic. Math was created by man to aid in keeping track of trade. This means that it's all illusionary and if you've taken any sort of business accounting, you know that many parts of math not only defy logic, but ethics as well.

Math phobic... I'm not phobic, I just wasn't built that way. My brother and father do math in their heads. It's a trade off, though. Where they can do math, I can do spatials. I see size, distance, time in my head and can pretty well fix just about most things that are broken if I have the time and tools. Yep... I rode the short tesseract bus for spatial students.

[identity profile] shackrlu.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, I knew that conversation we were having was gonna keep spiraling!! It stayed with me too for a bit, I had to turn on the tv and start watching something more mindless to get my brain turned off chaos theory tripping through my brain!! I still ended up dreaming about it somewhat, at least you and I were invisible at a party and arguing over what people were.. attractors or strange attractors. All I really remember about it was me with hands on hips declaring.. "I'm the FITZ.. and as the Fitz I think I know when someone is a detrimental strange attractor!!" I think I even stamped my invisible foot.. but that's all I remember, I woke up enough to turn off the tv and zonk back out.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you, my dear, dear, most darling friend. You help me keep myself human, and keep from spiraling out into my own universe.

Unfortunately, the conversation in my head is still going on. I have yet to approach the concept of the Individual Attractor, which is like you or I or Tim, and whom seem to bring folks to them. Then the exponential potential of what happens when Individual Attractors come together to create a Set of Attractors. Do they become Strange Attractors or do they simply create an entirely different form of Attractor.

Oh my... this is something that will eat my head alive. I will tell you this, though. If I ever come to a complete understanding of it, one of two things will happen. I will either fully understand human dynamics and the music of the Spheres or I will become wholly disenchanted with the human race and fade away.

I do know that pursuing this will answer a thousand questions I have asked myself over the years.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
That would have been a cool dream to be in! I mean... I was, but I would have liked to have been in it.

[identity profile] capi.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
*smile*

So.... between us, we make a really good pair of specs! hahahahahaha!!!

[identity profile] heyitschris1.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I think Im a strange attractor. I always seem to attract strange ideas and friends I find them way more interesting.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
ahhhh.. but Chris, there is a difference between someone who just attracts strange and someone who is actually an attractor already possessing chaotic characteristics. You know this though. I agree, I think most of the folks in our circle of friends are Strange Attractors, because we certainly do attract strange folks to us.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
We should have buttons made! "It's a Pockets Thing." No exclamation mark, because it should be just generally accepted. I like it.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
There will be more coming.

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-28 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I would have to say that between us, we are certainly a spectacle.

[identity profile] shackrlu.livejournal.com 2009-03-29 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
You two are really something to see!!

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-29 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
Ho ho, ha ha, hee hee. (Cuz it rhymes, you see.)

[identity profile] motherpockets.livejournal.com 2009-03-29 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
I like it, too!!

[identity profile] starseeking.livejournal.com 2009-03-29 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I've never attracted anyone strange. Okay, no one seems strange to me anyway. Perhaps this means that I am the strange one?

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-29 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
You would be an anomaly, then. However, consider this: Ever been part of a group, small or large, that has an element of chaos in it?

Strange Attractor is not the definition of a person that attracts strange people, Chum. It's a quasi mathematical relationship. It just so happens that it applies to groups of people, too.

[identity profile] rowangolightly.livejournal.com 2009-03-30 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Any one of us, if asked 5 years ago if we could forsee this Super Set, this Family of Necessity happening, would say no.

Absolutely...I knew I was headed somewhere when I 1) met Bruce, 2) started the band, 3 moved and 4) started White Hart but not ever where it would all go. I have known for a long time that I am "one of those people" but have never examined mathematically (I leave that for others to do!) what it means or why it works. I DO know that positive energy attracts positive energy...

[identity profile] joegoda.livejournal.com 2009-03-31 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
I DO know that positive energy attracts positive energy

And while I know this is, indeed, true, it is just as true that positive can attract negative. Such is the nature of the Law of Attraction. Therein lies the Chaotic nature of SuperSets. While a smaller Set, comprised of human beings, contains the option to accept or decline, the larger the Set becomes the less that option presents itself immediately.

The concept of Sets, SuperSets, Attractors and Strange Attractors is my mind rummaging through the past and marveling at the connections that we, as humans, go through as we follow the path or paths of our lives. The experiences, both negative and positive, that work to create the choices we make to lead us to the lives we are in and the associations that we have.

I have wondered, for many a year, at the concepts of destiny, of free will, of choice. Does it exist? And if not, how are we given the illusion of it. And if so, then why does so much seem to be nothing more than a manipulation of that will leading us on paths that, when gazed from the present, seem to indicate that we are exactly where we should be.

It is possible that we do have free will, but also an innate understanding that rises above our human mind so that regardless of the path we take, that we will end up doing what we need to do, where we need to do it, and in the time that we need to do it in?

Living alone, I have quite a lot of time to think, so I will continue pondering this. I have for over 20 years, and it seems a shame to toss it out as 'not being relevant'. Regardless of it's relevance.

[identity profile] rowangolightly.livejournal.com 2009-03-31 03:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, it's relevent...