This crisis begins, in classic chaos-theory fashion, with a trivial event along the 100-mile railroad track that moves most coal out of the Powder River Basin.

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The narrative he builds is one that compels us to become more comfortable with math and statistics, one that suggests we should take advantage of machines where possible, and one in which we cannot lose the human element guiding the analysis if we want to avoid catastrophic chaos-theory driven failures to which machines are susceptible.

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For a more recent, if similarly calamitous, manifestation of the power of chaos theory, consider how different the world would be today had not a devout, soft-spoken Saudi Arabian engineer inherited a significant fortune from his estranged father.

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An anthropocentric humanism finds expression in this novel in the very sensual pleasures of life and in the theory of chaos, pictured as a waterwheel with an irregular spin that creates a butterfly-like pattern which is impossible to predict but beautiful to behold.

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