random and chaos have become everyday words. Both have specific scientific/mathematical meanings, and they are no longer used correctly by the masses.That statement intrigues me. Is the author claiming that the scientific/mathematical definitions are the
correct ones? Surely the author would have been better to say that the words are used
differently in different contexts? Certainly in the case of chaos, the word existed long before the modern mathematical discipline that uses it. I agree that when using terms which are specifically scientific in origin, one should try to use their origiinal definitions, but surely words like "random" and "chaos" have always had general, non-scientific definitions. For an author to claim that these are "wrong" smacks of the "white-coated priesthood" mentality - "I am a scientist, so you will use these words in the manner I prescribe". If we use the author's apparent "I saw it first, so it's mine" approach, it could be argued, with a word like "chaos", which predates a scientific definition, that it is
the scientists who are using it incorrectly.
