The field is a marriage of mathematics and physics whose cohesion was dependent upon the invention of the high-speed computer to calculate its complex and ongoing iterative equations.
Chaos theory divides neatly into two camps.
The school to which Ilya Prigogine's name is attached is concerned with complex systems which spontaneously self-organize in a temporal progression out of chaos. This is where fractals, shapes generated according to the principle that self-similarity recurs at progressive levels of scale, arise. In each school order is created and recreated only through indeterminate chaos. Chaos thus becomes a positive and enabling, rather than a negative or nihilistic force. Unfortunately, most writers merely reiterate postmodern notions about the uncertainty of our knowledge and the fictitious nature of all interpretations.