Chaos

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when teenagers are shipwrecked on a deserted island? Can you find the fingerprint of God in warzones? Why was the concept of zero so revolutionary for humanity? A year into a pandemic that has completely upended the lives of people around the world, we look at how we cope with chaos, how we're primed to make order out of randomness, and why the stories we're taught to believe about our propensities for self-destruction may not actually be true.

Transcript

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0:00.0	K.O.S. is an unpredictable force we all collide with.
0:22.5	When I think about the word K.O.S. I usually think of external forces that are imposing
0:28.8	chaos. Explosions or what happened last March when the coronavirus really took off.
0:42.8	Bargain hunters at this Georgia Walmart wrestling over pots and pans, the commotion
0:48.1	varying out of control. There are some systems which are unpredictable. If you try to predict
1:08.6	the future mathematically, you find that the system just behaves wildly.
1:38.6	The feeling of experiencing a panic attack for me is very much similar to what K.O.S. is like.
1:48.6	The breathing gets very shallow. Sometimes I'll hear a really intense ringing in my ears.
2:08.6	My logical side of my brain is like trying to tell my body and my emotions like you are not in danger right now.
2:18.6	Nothing's hurting you. That dissonance to me feels like K.O.S. you are not in danger right now.
2:28.6	Human throughout history have grappled with the K.O.S. in their minds and the environment around them.
2:40.6	Why is their life? Do you believe in God? Looking for ways to understand and control it.
2:46.6	Purpose of science is to determine how the heavens go. The purpose of religion is to determine how to go to heaven.
2:54.6	But what if K.O.S. isn't just danger or fear or confusion? There is opportunity in K.O.S.
3:02.6	K.O.S. can sometimes unleash something new. A revolution that creates a better system, an accident that leads to penicillin,
3:14.6	an unexpected encounter that inspires new art, literature or music.
3:28.6	I'm Randabha Dutfattha. And I'm Ramteen Aralui.
3:32.6	A year into a pandemic that completely upended the lives of people around the world seems like a good time to reflect on K.O.S. This unpredictable force that cuts across time and place.
3:46.6	So in this episode, we're going to experience a few stories of people who found order in the K.O.S.
3:52.6	A group of kids shipwrecked on an island in a real life Lord of the Flies, a mathematician who created something out of nothing
4:00.6	and will begin with a marine who couldn't stop seeing patterns.
4:04.6	Producer Jamie York has that story when we come back.
	...

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