Complexity and Chaos

I just got a new set of lectures from The Teaching Company about these issues. I'm really excited about it because I feel like so many things in life are so drastically over-simplified by our brains. I am often stunned when I hear people make causal connections that seem so simplistic. I'm sure I do it too. The first example of a leap that I tend to avoid is connecting a specific action such as eating a particular food or sleeping too long, to a particular result such as a headache or sleepiness. I don't deny these connections altogether, I can simply think of too many other possible contributing factors to be comfortable declaring a simple cause-and-effect. There are just so many things that correspond or correlate, but are not necessarily primary causes, yet get assigned as causes for the sake of simplicity. I think this simplistic approach to interpreting life must have huge ramifications in every area from politics to religion. Of course I'll have a write-up about my feelings that will be way too long for anyone to read as soon as I'm done with the courses.