"Life at the edge of chaos is quite a balancing act. Despite a common belief that complex systems follow a routine nature, there is in actuality a huge factor of uncertainty that follows them. Picture of instance a system, any system. Doesn't matter the level of complexity. Whether the system is large or small, the outcome is the same. What we perceive as routine is actually what we have been trained to believe."
Malcolm cleared his throat, as he looked out at the audience. Half of them looked bored already, and the other half, they seemed eager, although he knew that they were not here for his talk. He paused to take a sip of his water, as he would need to gather his thoughts. "Humans are social creatures, but we are also creatures of habit. Perhaps unique among all of evolutions byproducts."
"We think ourselves above all the regularities of nature. Alone among the animals, we believe ourselves to have bent our world to our own purpose. Reconstructed it, shaped it. Just think of all of what you see in the news, global warming, mass extinctions. We believe ourselves capable of shaping the world itself to our whims. That it will remember us long after we are gone."
"Chaos although, it does not stop for any of this. Chaos is not a force with a will behind it. Chaos is not God, the Devil, or anyone in between. It however is a product you might say, of what happens when these natural processes are left running. Chaos is what happens when God steps back and lets the world run itself, you might say." There was the slightest titter among the audience.
Not quite what they'd wanted to hear, he understood that. This lecture at Berkley, he'd only accepted due to an old favor to a university colleague. It was not something that he enjoyed doing these days. Especially when everything regarding the Island incidents was now public knowledge, especially his involvements in them. Try as he might, it had all become known. Life had found a way.
He had aged considerably in the past decade or so, a full beard now present on his face. A gold band on his finger would tap against the wood of the podium, as he cleared his throat, waiting for the words to come to him. It seemed that he had just been making these same speeches for decades, but each time they seemed to be falling on deaf ears. Well, maybe this time it would be different. He smiled wryly to himself as he realized that he was only deluding himself.
"When complex systems are allowed to operate on their own, we start to see small changes, almost imperceptible at first. The minuteness of these changes might even mean that an observer who is in a position to change them, will not do anything- due to his perception of their relative unimportance. They will continue regardless, these changes you must remember- they simply introduce new elements into a standard routine."
"Remember what I said earlier about creatures of habit. Systems with new elements introduced often try to accommodate them. Often this is via simply continuing their current processes with the new variables introduces. But …that is something that a system won't handle well after a while. Picture a set of gears with a marble or a block thrown into the middle Maybe it breaks down, maybe it becomes clogged, or maybe…maybe something new comes out."
"The best way to visualize this would be the old saying, if 100 monkeys were locked in a room with 100 typewriters for 100 years… eventually they'll write the works of Shakespeare." He paused again. No that wasn't quite correct, he thought, as he furrowed his brow. Not that the audience would overmuch care. Malcolm suspected that less than half of the audience was still following. Maybe it was time to get them a bit more interested.
"And now the reason I bring all this up. In the past three years, we've seen a such a marble…block if you will, were to be inserted into our daily routine. Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs having been brought back from 65 million years ago, now walking among us. It is now possible that you might encounter a Triceratops in a city park on a routine hike. Or perhaps even a Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Some members in the front row started to sit up a bit straighter as Malcolm smiled. Of course, he'd figured that would be the thing that would regain interest back…but he was far from done. "Now. What we've been told is that this is something that's possible to integrate into our current existence. That we can bring these animals into our complex system, as if nothing were the matter."
"Nothing could be further from the truth. Now I am not here to repeat the tale of the incidents that have occurred over the past few years. These animals are dangerous, no one is disputing that. However, there is something that we must consider. That this is another factor altogether we have missed. Right now, this is something that could tip the balance of the scale in our complex ecosystem."
"These changes. They are always there, sometimes even from the beginning." Now that was one of the many things that some might find it difficult to believe, but it was true. "So the assumption is that these systems are facing difficulties in adjusting. That is one way of looking at it. Another is that the system is trying to adjust too fast. Another option…".
"Is to help that change. We are on the edge of chaos, teetering between one extremity and the other. Our current system is trying to fight back against the new variable. The new change. Is that possible? I am not here to say whether or not it is..but it will be interesting to see what the push back is against this new attempt to integrate these animals into our current ecosystem."
Malcom stepped back from the podium, to tepid applause as he looked to the side of the stage. There it was, a familiar face- the one he knew all too well, as he'd hoped not to see for a while since the Sorna incident. The man had called him here for the purpose of giving a lecture to the assembly.
"Levine…it's been a long time, but I suppose that what you want me for is good," He said as he sipped another draught of his water. The two men headed off into a backstage area, away from the crowd, and from other prying eyes. As soon as they were inside, Levine dropped a folder on a nearby dresser.
Malcolm started towards it, flipping through it, as he frowned. It was filled with various polaroid's and charts and graphs with the various He was getting older, this was beyond his comfort zone now. "I don't know what you want me to do about this. It's a lot of information."
Levine looked him straight in the eye. "I spent a lot of time building that up. Now Masrani isn't exactly as forthcoming with it's data as I'd hoped, so much of this research was done the hard way. I have species lists, distributions of sightings, and witness reports." As Malcolm looked over him again, he did see that Levine had a wearied, tired look. He'd heard rumors of something happening in Mexico but he hadn't been certain until now.
"I'm not asking you to go off on any adventures. I think we're both past that," Levine said as he stepped closer, his hand on the folder, letting his hands flip their pages through casually as well. "Nice lecture. But I have to say that we are much closer than on the edge of chaos. We're teetering right on the edge. It's right here."
"Richard." Now Malcolm sighed, as he took off his glasses, cleaning them with a cloth, as he would relax his shoulders. "It's not that I don't trust Masrani- but that I feel that right now, the situation is not quite at that point. What inciting incident do you see? More to the point, who is doing the inciting?"
Levine paused, now it was his turn to frown. Malcolm definitely was seeing something here, even from the data… He smiled after a few seconds…understanding. "It's not going to be one inciting incident this time. Nor is there ever one, you said it yourself. It's changes…changes in the ongoing routine." He pointed to the graphs and tables in the folder, hoping these were making sense.
"The data I have here… an attack in Fort Worth here, a Triceratops in Reno, a pack of Compys in New Orleans…" That wasn't enough, not by itself to convince anyone. But he knew that the patterns in the data were there. Eventually they'd present itself to hIm. The skeptical look on Malcolm's face remained. He wasn't convinced yet. That honestly made a lot of sense, Malcolm had spent a lot of time out of this after the Island incidents. He hadn't faced what Levine ahd in Ismaloya and in Mexico. No, these thigns had changed him, made him a lot more susceptible to understanding the mistakes he'd made in Sorna.
He'd made a lot of mistakes back then, failing to recognize warning signs. Malcolms speech though, it had given him some of the pieces needed, as he had created this ledger through half remembered, half-baked ideas… but he'd been positive that it would all lead to something more interesting. Maybe he didn't know what he'd expected, that Malcolm would suddenly listen… maybe Malcolm didn't either.
However, it seemed to be a lightbulb moment in his mind. "Look at the last page. Tell me what that says about what's going on." Malcolm looked up, flipping to the last page, and as he did so, he'd see the polaroid. He paused, picking it up, as he saw it too, the grainy picture of Owen Grady standing alongside the raptors. He seemed to stare at it for a long moment.
"Masrani is preparing a big announcement for next week. I don't think it takes very much guesswork to figure out what," Levine interjected. Maybe… she shook his head. No one would be that foolish would they? "What do you think? They'll listen to what you have to say. You have the spotlight enough to be able to make yourself heard in ways that I can't. Before it's too late."
Malcolm stood up straight. "Who says it's not already too late?"