8/14/2019 Rottnest Island - Chaotic Ground Patterns

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rottnest-island-chaotic-ground-patterns 1/2

12/06/09 7:32 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Page 1 of 2http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/2009/06/12/

Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia 

[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends View]

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Time Event7:17a Rottnest Island - Chaotic ground patterns

During the 1990s when I was working on my PhD about the historical exploitation of maritime resources in the southwestof the state, I started to become interested in chaos theory. I couldn’t de velop this interest in my study because it wouldhave been too great a diversion from my original thesis. I did write up some ideas in draft versions, but eventually onlygave a hint of my new interest with a bland sentence on page 276 of the conclusions chapter, “Uncertainty prevailed inmany aspects of Aboriginal and European lives, and much of this was due to the chaotic environmental factors.”

Chaos is all about us. For many people chaos translates as disorganisation, randomness and even calamity. But that’s onlyfrom the subjective point of view. The reality is if natural dynamic systems are observed in certain ways then some sort of patterning becomes apparent. Furthermore there are always adjacent determinants which influence the patterning. The artof understanding these patterns is recognising the determinants. Got that?

 Rottnest ground patterns - April 2009

fremantlebiz  Log out

Home  Post  Friends Page

 You are viewing your journal

View Recent Comments  Manage Entries  Invite Friends

Explore LJ:  Life  Entertainment  Music  Culture  News & Politics  Technology 

Interest  Search... Go

8/14/2019 Rottnest Island - Chaotic Ground Patterns

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rottnest-island-chaotic-ground-patterns 2/2

12/06/09 7:32 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Page 2 of 2http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/2009/06/12/

About LiveJournal.com

I photographed the above ‘chaotic’ ground patterns on Rottnest Island in late April. I think they are very beautiful, and allvery different from each other. This raises another series of questions. In particular why are the natural combinations of colors so pleasing to my brain? When I look closely at the individual elements of these images there are dozens of colourvariations amongst them, but somehow they are blended in an apparently orderly way for my appreciation in a way whichno human hand could do. Even much admired Aboriginal ‘dot’ paintings are only approximations for the great diversity of patterning which temporarily decorates the landscape of the natural environment.

I say temporarily because all natural subjects are dynamic. They change over time. At the macro level, change couldprobably be measured in the photos above over very a short time span, maybe a few minutes or much less in some cases.Maybe a bug tripped on a leaf?

Seasonally, rain falls, salts dissolve, quokka tracks wash away, wind blows, plants grow, leaves fall, the position of thesun alters. With two months almost elapsed, if I took photos of all these places today the changes might not be obvious tothe casual observer, but closer scrutiny would detect substantial variation.

The patterning of the future can never be exactly the same as the patterning arrangements of the past, but if thedeterminants for patterning are better understood there can be an degree of prediction. That’s what I find so interestingabout chaos theory. It has applications in many areas. For example in virology.

I note that during the past 24 hours the entirely new H1N1 swine-flu virus has been recognised by WHO as a globalpandemic.

© MMIX Paul R. Weaver.

Click the Sribd logo for downloadable PDF versions of my Rottnest essays:

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of themhave a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several timesby clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard or try the HD version at http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6628212

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21stcentury Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking towrite at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Current Music:  Annie Lennox: 'Pattern Of My Life' (Comment on this)

<< Previous Day2009/06/12

[Calendar]