> [!summary] Progressive Summary # Structured Notes ## Definitions ## Chapter Summaries ### Introduction Alchemy and chaos theory are both theories about the external world that mirror the process of inner transformation. There are 5 principles which they share: 1. As above, so below Alchemy - this core belief was first presented in a text known as the "Emerald Tablet". Chaos theory - the global and the local are inextricably mixed. Best illustrated by Benoit Mandelbrot's mathematical concept of fractals. 2. Feedback Alchemy - the ancient symbol of feedback is the worm *uroboros*, which eats its own tail. Chaos theory - all of chaos theory is based on feeding the output of one stage of a process to the next stage of a process. This led to Lorenz's discovery of chaos theory. Computers allowed scientists to model how nature continually feeds actions back into themselves. 3. Take apart, put together Alchemy - the process of alchemy involves taking something apart, then putting it back together again, eventually leading to the creation of the philosopher's stone. Chaos theory - this process pervades chaos theory, such as in the concept of "strange attractors". Another example is the baker transformation, in which a baker kneads dough over and over, separating parts of the dough that are close together, and bringing together other parts that are widely separated. I'm also thinking of the Chinese art of pulling to create noodles. 4. Chaos and emergence Alchemy - alchemists believed that all possibilities were contained within darkness and chaos; the philosopher's stone would eventually emerge out of chaos. Chaos theory - in chaos theory, order emerges gradually as the system keeps bifurcating. Even when the bifurcations change into chaos, there is still an emergent order. 5. Philosopher's stone Alchemy - the true philospher's stone was found inside the alchemist's soul. Inner transformation was the goal. Chaos theory - applied to neural science, this is the insight that order is created as much within us, as through external sensory input. ### Chapter 1 - The Story of Alchemy and Chaos Theory First mention of alchemy may have been in China as early as 4th century BC, but certainly by 1st century BC. Alchemy appeared in the West around the same time, when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 330 BC. He created the city of Alexandria. After his death, his childhood friend, the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy I, founded the famous library of Alexandria, the Museion, which started a process in which abstract Greek philosophy came together with Egyptian metallurgical knowledge and the mysticism of the Chaldeans and Persians. Three products of this cultural inter-mingling were alchemy, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. It's likely that the library went into decline starting from the 3rd century, when the Roman emperor Aurelian invaded Alexandria. Muslim scholars continued to visit and learn the secrets of alchemy, taking them back to their own countries. When the Arabs conquered Spain in the 7th and 8th centuries, knowledge of alchemy flowed back into the West. Spain had a large Jewish population, and alchemical ideas were combined with Jewish mystical thought, resulting in the Qabalah. In the 12th and 13th centuries, alchemical ideas finally spread beyond Spain to the rest of Europe. Newton was an important pivot point, being the last of the old alchemists, and the founder of a new scientific order. Science replaced alchemy after that. In the late 19th century, Poincaré discovered that the 3-body problem could not be solved. It took many decades later, with the invention of computers, for Lorenz to discover chaos theory. ### Chapter 2 - As Above, So Below # Quotes