Our language is weak in metaphors adequate to the task of describing
dynamic process, methinks.
For me, the image is a strange attractor, especially watching one
emerge. I don't know if this is "a concrete visual" because strange
attractors don't exist except when a mathematician tries to map a
fractal into a phase space of a lesser dimension. (I am not a
mathematician, so correct any inaccuracies.)But my understanding of
what a fractal is, in whatever sense it exists, is that it is the
relationship "between that of a point and a line, of a line and a
surface, or even of a surface and a volume" (Nicolis & Prigogine in
_Exploring Complexity: An Introduction_). So it portrays a historically
determined, but unpredictable, relationship (betweenness) in process.
But fractals, or even strange attractors, cannot be perceived by
staring on hot days at the asphalt. You don't bump into them or smell
them. You rarely overhear discussion of them in the line at the grocery
store.
Kathie
******************************************************
\\\\\\\\\\\\\You live you learn
\\\\\\\\\\\You love you learn
\\\\\\\\\You cry you learn
\\\\\\\You lose you learn
\\\\\You bleed you learn
\\\You scream you learn////////alanis morissette:jagged little pill
******************************************************
Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html