Natural Order Natural Order
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The Richat Structure (the Eye of the Sahara), Mauritania, 2020. Photo by Yonas Kidane/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Nature

Natural Order

The Regular Patterns of Nature
Mikołaj Golachowski
Reading
time 10 minutes

Nature tends towards entropy. At the same time, it is full of patterns and regularities. How is this possible?

One of my favourite literary characters, the moderately heroic wizard Rincewind from Terry Pratchett’s novels, was once terrified to hear that a certain area featured many erratic rocks. The wizard’s anxiety could be understood if we take the word ‘erratic’ to mean unpredictable or even capricious, and not just as a descriptor of a rock that has been transported by a glacier and deposited in a surprising location.

As is usually the case with Pratchett, however, Rincewind’s worries illustrate a deeper issue. We generally feel safer in an orderly, predictable world. Our attempts to comprehend the universe make us so keen to find in it some universal patterns and rules that we often get led astray. Furthermore, if we do manage to find some patterns or similarities, we insist on giving them a deeper meaning, even though so many phenomena around us are either random, or appear the way they do because there isn’t much of an alternative. The veins in our hands, the venation of leaves and courses of rivers are all supposed to illustrate our deep connection to nature. That connection does exist, of course, but is there any other way for them to flow? If many small trickles combine to form a larger one, this is what it looks like; there’s no alternative, and the only thing it illustrates is the behaviour of liquids in vessels.

Photo by Victor Grabarczyk/Unsplash

Ancient pyramids, encountered all over

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Non-Human Admiration Non-Human Admiration
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The Melbourne penguins. Photo by Tobias Baumgaertner, who is supporting the Forever Wild Earth charity with all sales profits (www.foreverwild.earth). Photo by Tobias Baumgaertner; www.tobiasvisuals.com
Nature

Non-Human Admiration

It’s Possible That Animals Also Perceive Beauty
Mikołaj Golachowski

You may have seen a photo on the internet of two friendly little penguins that meet in the evenings to admire the Melbourne city lights reflected in the sea, flipper-in-flipper. It’s easy to be skeptical about the interpretation of the shot. But then perhaps humans aren’t the only creatures capable of delight. 

You don’t have to be a romantic to see that the natural world is full of beauty. From picturesque landscapes to unbelievably colorful birds and fish—all around us there are sights that can provide even the least emotionally-inclined person a moment of aesthetic pleasure. As someone who isn’t (or at least doesn’t consider themselves to be) overly effusive, I still find it hugely gratifying when, for example, our ship weighs anchor in Ilulissat, Greenland, and sails into the fairy-tale world of yellow-crimson sunsets and incredibly blue icebergs reflected in an expanse of liquid gold. At such moments, I can almost hear a gentle clicking in my head: everything falls into place, and the world surrounding me feels exactly as it should be. There’s no place I’d rather be. 

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