Although a page of paper such as th

Although a page of paper such as this can show only atwo-dimensional and static representation of a strange attractor,in a computer simulation, the representation evolves infinitely in the multidimensionality of state space. As we watch the trajectory move through state space, the memory of initial conditions is lost as new information replaces it. Because the finite bounds of the strange attractor must encompass exponentially diverging orbits (a potentially infinite process), a stretching and folding operation takes place, analogous to the stretching and folding that occur as we knead bread dough. If we add a drop of food coloring to the dough and then perform several iterations of the kneading process, we cannot locate the original drop, although we can now see streaks of color diffused throughout; nor can we know the patterns that those streaks will take as we perform further iterations. As a strange attractor evolves over time, the starting place becomes lost: “The stretching and folding operation of a chaotic attractor systematically removes the initial information and replaces it with new information: the stretch makes smallscale uncertainties larger, the fold brings widely separated trajectories together and erases large-scale information.”52 Always in the process of becoming, the strange attractor visually demonstrates our inability to retrodict the past state of a system or to predict its future state. Although we cannot make precise predictions, computer simulation enables us to discern the system’s overall behavior over time—to apprehend visually its disorderly order.