I first grasped to the concept in childhood. I realized the sum of the parts never create a balanced whole at any given point in time.
But over time, things can spin enough together for good and bad things to happen.
Democracy is a product of chaos theory in the U.S.
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I don’t believe MATH can describe the chaos theory and thusly predict a final result. It may be able to gather assumptions and make broad estimates.
This is my interpretation of what it is. Other writers, scholars, scientists have their own versions too.