The pre-Newtonian notion of cyclical processes was refined in the Chaos Theory. Unlike the mythical eternal repetition of Sameness, chaotic oscillations, no matter how similar to each other, are always unique. The system never repeats itself, but spontaneously forms a new form of order of higher complexity. Systems are extremely sensitive, to a level of unpredictability. Minute changes in the system’s initial state will lead to large-scale consequences over time. From virtually the same starting point, two trajectories develop in completely different ways, making any long-range prediction impossible - the popularly called Butterfly effect. Fractal geometry pointed out to another feature of self-organizing systems - self-similarity: the pattern of the whole is similar to itself at all levels of organization. All levels and parts are similar without ever being the same: a whole in fractal geometry is a taken as a sequence of patterns within patterns.

The Newtonian metaphor was not the last one that lost on actuality in the 20th century. John von Neumann’s invention of the digital computer introduced the analogy between the computer (artificial intelligence) and brain functioning, which has been dominating the sciences and the popular worldview to nowadays. The human mind has been approached as a computer; the process of cognition has been described as information processing, i.e. manipulation of symbols based on a set of rules. Yet, this metaphor did not hold on for too long, as neuroscientists made a clear distinction between the brain and the mind, proving that the majority of mental activities are not performed strictly in the brain area (memory, for example, is not stored locally, but distributively). Recent research shows that the nervous system functions on the basis of “massive connectivity” in a non-linear way (meaning that it works in all directions simultaneously), and exhibits self-organizing capacity. The notion of thinking was expanded over the area of experience, feelings, bodily sensations, and the Santiago theory offered a more advanced view of mentality and cognition as attributive to living systems in general: ”The mind does not process information in a sense of discrete elements pre-existent in an outside world. Cognition consists of the interaction of a system with its environment where they both continually modulate their structures.” Moreover, the environment is not an “It” but a set of different cognitive systems, self-reliant networks intertwined with the system under observance. This environmental network is in a process of co-evolution with the system, adjusting itself to the system, changing its own structure as the system changes. The system and its systemic environment co-evolve, or co-cognite together; to use Deleuzean terminology - they become together.

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