Eric Chaisson

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Nature almost surely operates by combining chance with necessity, randomness with determinism

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The two go hand in hand like a dance: chance flirts with necessity, randomness with determinism. To be sure, it is from this interchange that novelty and creativity arise in Nature, thereby yielding unique forms and novel structures

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At every level in our inventory, nothing seems special about our Earth, our Sun, our Galaxy, our Local Group. Evidently, mediocrity reigns throughout. Such is our niche in the Universe

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Though we might like to think so, humankind is not at any special, unique or privileged location in the gargantuan, perhaps infinite, Universe

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Not that chance dominated events in the early Solar System, for scientific determinism was also functioning. But chance is an essential factor in all evolutionary events, and the birth and development of our planetary system were not exceptions