This article by Turcotte emphasized the importance of fractals in the understanding of geological processes as opposed to statistical equations, which cannot always explain geological patterns.
Although this reading provided insight into how various situations are modeled and how statistical modelling plays an important role into understanding the geophysics or our planet, geocomplexity as a whole still remains a rather abstract concept to me. The article provided some illustrations that greatly helped my comprehension, but more would be necessary to better comprehend some concepts. Illustrating complexity may be complex in itself, but
Will we find new statistical formulas to model problems we couldn’t model in the past? How we understand and conceptualize Earth plays a vital role into how GIScientists are able to push for further knowledge. Recent technological advances in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and increasing supercomputing capabilities open the door for further innovation in the field. For example, geological instability could better be understood. In those scenarios, could weather or earthquakes become more predictable? Further advances in related fields such as geophysics and geology will also greatly contribute to GIScience.
The concept of chaos theory is also very intriguing to me, a theory I’d never heard of before. A quote from Lorenz greatly helped me understand the concept: “When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future”, meaning small changes in the initial state have an effect on the final state of a particular event.