How Chaos Control Is Changing The World

Physicists have known that it's possible to control chaotic systems without just making them even more chaotic since the 1990s. But in the past 10 years this field has really exploded thanks to machine learning.

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00:00 Intro
00:47 Chaos is Everywhere
03:08 The Lorenz-Model
04:39 Chaos Control
06:54 The Double Pendulum
08:12 Applications of Chaos Control
09:48 Chaos Control for Nuclear Fusion
14:04 Science and Maths Courses on Brilliant

#science #physics #technology

[Bayerwaldler]

In 1982 I wrote my master's thesis in mathematics about chaos in Duffing's equation (a nonlinear forced oscillator with friction). It's fascinating how the theory of chaotic systems becomes of practical importance today!

[BleakStarshine]

Chaos Control (カオスコントロール Kaosu Kontorōru?) is a technique that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a chaos power that allows the user to warp time and space with the mystical Chaos Emeralds. While first introduced as a way to teleport over large distances, Chaos Control has since been evolved into an overall term for any supernatural reality manipulation conducted through the Chaos Emeralds, allowing incredible feats such as traversal through time and between dimensions, altering the fabric of reality, or freezing time.

Chaos Control is also known to be the foundation upon which various chaos powers are based, as its usage of distorting space can be used for a variety of other actions.

Chaos Control is an ability that allows the user to manipulate or warp the fabric of space and time using a Chaos Emerald's energy, and its effects can be molded into affecting reality in a multitude of manners. The power of Chaos Control is enhanced with each Chaos Emerald added to its usage, until reaching full power with all seven, meaning that the more Emeralds that are used in the process, the greater is the extent that the user can warp space and time. Furthermore, because the power of the Chaos Emeralds can be harnessed without a physical connection to one of them, users only need to be within an unknown proximity to one to use Chaos Control.

Chaos Control requires at least one Chaos Emerald nearby to draw power from, and without one, Chaos Control is impossible, with the exception of fake Emeralds with the same wavelength and properties as a real Chaos Emerald. A report for the Biolizard also stated that a specific organ was used by the creature to begin the process of Chaos Control.


The Space Colony ARK being teleported by Chaos Control, from Sonic Adventure 2.

Chaos Control is foremost associated with its ability to manipulate space, which is usually used to create warps that teleport the user instantaneously from one place to another. The user can also bring others with them when warping, or warp objects to other locations without going with them by firing Chaos Control as an energy ball, though varying amounts of energy is required depending on the extent of the warp. With all seven Chaos Emeralds, the user can perform Chaos Control to its full extent, which can teleport objects as large as the Space Colony ARK and the Black Comet from the earth's surface and into space. With just a couple of Chaos Emeralds, Chaos Control can even be used for interdimensional travel: Shadow could warp himself and Metal Sonic back to earth from the Chaotic Inferno Zone with one Emerald, while Blaze could go to another dimension with two, and Black Doom could warp others into cyberspace.

As demonstrated by Dr. Eggman, Chaos Control's space-manipulating properties can also be used to reshape reality itself, which he demonstrated by splitting the earth into seven regions using Chaos Control. Together with the time-manipulating properties of Chaos Control, the user can also create rifts in space and time, which can banish those who passes into them to the void. In battle, Chaos Control can also be used to distort space around limbs to increase the damage of their blows.

The second most common use of Chaos Control is its ability to manipulate time, though not to the same extent as the space-manipulation. It is most frequently used to either slow down time or stop it entirely, which in turn keeps other suspended without any means of breaking free. The users themselves are unaffected however.

Chaos Control can also be used for defense in combat, allowing the user to block attacks and heal damage. For offense, this technique allows the user to create distortions in space in front of them to knock opponents away.

[sifta]

I spent a large part of the 1990s studying nonlinear and chaotic dynamical systems and bifurcation theory. At the time there was a strong (incorrect?) intuition that the key to unlocking applications was to discover human-comprehensible “reduced-order” models which could be used to achieve such control. At the same time, AI research was typically not mathematically precise, but highly dependent on case-studies and analogies.

Thank you for the wonderful summary of progress in maturing and integrating these once disparate areas.

[MagruderSpoots]

Lorenz didn't just round off the digits. The print out that he had only had so many digits but internally the computer was using more. So when he had to restart the program in the middle of a run he used what he had at that point and found that the result soon diverged from what had been calculated before.

[matheussanthiago]

Goddammit Knuckles you were supposed to guard the chaos emeralds

[nekodjin]

The Boston Dynamics robots use machine learning / AI for systems such as the camera module so that the robots can recognize real-world objects, but they do not use machine learning to control the actual movements of the robots. That part is just really well executed control theory.

[johnholly]

On Saturday morning, I watch Sabine. On Sunday morning, I watch Ola Englund. On Wednesday night, I watch PBS Spacetime. Every evening, I watch Robert Lawrence Kuhn’s series Closer to Truth. I have found the coolest content providers on the internet. Thank you Sabine. Merry Christmas to everyone, or Happy Holidays if that is your preference.

[johnpayne]

A standout presentation, Sabine. Well blended and multidisciplinary.
Please give us more on this topic, especially turbulence (an area often neglected in physics).
Things like large eddy structures and von Karman vortex sheets.
The later provides a nice example of a control systems approach to complex physical systems (vis-a-vis helical strakes on tall cylindrical chimneys to prevent resonance).
The former is just beauty how randomness leads to coherent structure.

[Glitterblossom]

Sabine chuckled.
“You mean the Chaos Emeralds?”

[pesilaratnayake]

Some of my research was in Control Theory. I mostly worked in linearised, reduced-order models of Navier-Stokes and mass transport equations because control of non-linear PDEs is notoriously difficult to develop analytically, especially for generating turbulence and vortex shedding. Hopefully, machine learning techniques can be used to develop chaos control approaches that can improve such systems.
I know that actuation of fusion plasmas can be difficult and part of the reason control systems are so important is because the plasma can change very quickly and human intervention can be too slow to react and control the system effectively. Definitely an exciting area of development! Thanks, Sabine!

[InfraSolart]

I only clicked on this video because Chaos Control is a Sonic the Hedgehog power, but I ended up learning about a great way of problem solving. When problems have a tendency to be unstable, I always thought the solution was more stability.

Like to keep a rock from rolling down a hill, I thought the solution was to make a big enough divot. But sometimes it can be easier and more effective to have your friend (who may be a robot) keep the stone balanced.

[macronencer]

A thing I learned about weather forecasting that I thought was very clever: they run simulations over and over, with slight perturbations to the initial data, and then analyse the set of results to see how frequent a particular outcome is, then that outcome is given a probability in the forecast. A combination of number crunching and statistics - I love it!

[DeclanMBrennan]

Thanks for a whirlwind tour that was surprisingly non-chaotic.

Chaos was one large obstacle to humans reaching the moon. Dealing with engine combustion instability in the Saturn V F-1 proved to be a very difficult and stressful problem to solve before computers were able to run detailed simulations.

[aledirksen]

In 2015-2016, I spent a lot of time thinking about controlling chaos and writting theories and even had a password used everyday with a combination of these words (that I no longer use) just to keep myself thinking about it and when I saw your video, I got ecstatic! If more minds are needed on this, I will sure share my part!

[adamshinbrot]

"In science often the biggest problem is other scientists". Wonderful.

[TheZoltan-]

Sabine: Thanks for making the clarification between machine learning and AI! I don't like it that marketing is taking over scientific areas too. (I know... get more money for the research. But still...)

I've also played with chaos control back in uni in the nineties. One entertaining area was traffic control in to improve throughput without active signals. Another I wanted to do, but never managed, was airflow control over surfaces (e.g. aeroplanes) to reduce vortices and thus consumption.

[vincenttolve]

Thank-you Sabine. You regularly teach me I know less and less about the world than I thought. Soon I will be as smart as Socrates. I hope you and your family immensely enjoy whatever holiday you celebrate and that your New Year brings more adventures that you can share with all of us. Stay well.

[thomasm]

Excellent explanation of a complex topic. I have recently read Cixin Liu's "The three body problem" which includes a very interesting description of a chaotic system.

[kaemmili]

amazing video again, one of the rare channels where the tone is light and fluid, but with very structured explanations on key articulations .
dense yet truely a breez to watch

[etepperman]

Best channel on YouTube. No nonsense and no clickbate. Thanks for bring the us something with real substance. 👍