Chaos is an interesting word to use. Underneath all the chaos is so much order. Dare I say the universe is mechanistic in its working. The earth orbits in an orderly fashion, set at a distance from the sun that is just right to sustain life. The moon makes its transit, and with us all the planets here move in their own ordered fashion.
Or I suppose we could go smaller. Your body moves and goes, replicating one of the most complex forms of machine code known to man. That replication is paired with voltage gradients across groups of cells that determine macro organization of cellular structures.. The human body is self replicating, self correcting, and even keeps itself clean.
You see chaos, I see order (and I admit the order is becoming more chaotic). But that you recognize the chaos gives light to the fact that you desire order. And there is order to be seen if you look for it.
I'm starting to see that chaos and entropy are metaphors that we who have experienced existential despair are using to describe something else that may not be clear to those who have not. Not sure, but people keep getting distracted by those terms, but it seems to be missing the point.
Upstream post may well have said there is no meaning to all this order. Paying attention to the underlying order doesn't address the lack of meaning which is the essential part of the statement. There is no meaning to all this... *gestures vaguely around* might get at it better
This resonates (for lack of a better term) with me so much.
I recommend reading the book of Ecclesiastes. The author's frequent refrain is "'Vanity of vanities', says the Preacher, 'all is vanity.'"
You're right, chaos is a useless word. I've often tried to describe it as emptiness or worthlessness or a lack of intrinsic (self-contained) value. That is the efforts of my life are motes of dust in the history of the universe. The affect I have is empty, gone, "dust in the wind" as one artist puts it.
I guess looking at a well organized array of widgets does not exude meaning. Those, too, are meaningless without context. I mentioned in another comment that the universe itself does not contain the context into which it was created and that context -- I believe -- is where the true meaning and value of everything arises.
A tool is useless without the mechanic to use it. Clay is formless, void (meaningless) without a craftsman to shape it, fire it, and put it to use.
There are emergent relationships from a system that is indeed chaotic, but ultimately this is all subject to entropy. Everything is converging towards maximum diffusion.
Or I suppose we could go smaller. Your body moves and goes, replicating one of the most complex forms of machine code known to man. That replication is paired with voltage gradients across groups of cells that determine macro organization of cellular structures.. The human body is self replicating, self correcting, and even keeps itself clean.
You see chaos, I see order (and I admit the order is becoming more chaotic). But that you recognize the chaos gives light to the fact that you desire order. And there is order to be seen if you look for it.