Disorder can be described as the absence of structure and differentiation. Its religious and scientific connotations have been negative in many cultures, identifying God as the source of creational order. In thermodynamics, the entropy of a closed system is a measure of its disorder, which can only increase in due course of time. Chaotic systems show disorder, insofar it is impossible to indefinitely predict the behavior of their elements. Still, an overall structural order can emerge from inherent disorder, which may indicate that systemic order is transcended disorder and that a certain amount of disorder is necessary for emergent and adaptive structural processes.

See also CHAOS THEORY; EMERGENCE; ENTROPY

DIRK EVERS