Re:Complexity vs. unknowability (Score 1)

You are making a common mistake concerning the meanings of "deterministic" and "chaotic". The behavior you describe (small differences in inputs causing potentially large differences in outputs) is that of a "non-linear" system. The compliment of that would be (unsurprisingly) a "linear system." A "deterministic" system is one in which the state at time t+1 is entirely determined by the state at time t. With the exception of quantum mechanics (in which random events do occur), the world is a deterministic system. It is also a "chaotic" system. Those two terms are not mutually exclusive. A chaotic system is one which never settles into a resting state or a simple pattern. "Chaotic" is closely tied to "non-linear", in that most chaotic systems are described by non-linear differential equations (or difference equations). However, differential equations are arguably the quintessential deterministic description, as they describe what is going to happen next as a function of the current state.