The end of the nineteenth century saw the downfall of Newtonian physics, where the world was viewed as completely predictable, if given a set of initial conditions. As the initial state of any system can never be precisely measured, we are left with an understanding only of a distribution of possible states. Willard Gibbs was the first to show "a clean cut scientific method for taking this contingency into consideration." (p. 8) Physics now describes a universe of incomplete determinism.
In such a universe organization and distinctiveness is less probable than chaos and sameness. How organization increases is some parts of the universe, against the odds, is the study of cybernetics.
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