Dylan, Musk and the edge of chaos
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. With the release of the film “A Complete Unknown," the world has been reintroduced to Bob Dylan’s all-electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The singer, formerly Robert Allen Zimmerman, brazenly played a solid-body electric Fender Stratocaster on “Like a Rolling Stone" and two other songs, shocking the crowd that expected snooze-inducing acoustic folk.
Some booed. One critic said the singer “electrified one half of his audience and electrocuted the other." In 2025 we’re at a similar inflection point. It’s what happens when nonconformists seize the moment, leaving a trail of old and tired in their wake.
It’s a story as old as time, and today it’s the story of Silicon Valley. The “edge of chaos," an expression coined by physicist Norman Packard in 1988, is where creativity and innovation happen. On one side is staid order—the status quo.
On the other side is total havoc. Stuff happens in the turbulence where they meet, where change in pressure spits off cyclones and twisters. Silicon Valley is the source of many of these.
Sure, plenty of ideas fail, but enough drive long-term change for the better. Creativity benefits from chaos. Music—from Elvis Presley to Shaboozey—often shocks before becoming mainstream.
Same for film and fashion. Not everything that shocks turns into Bach. Especially art.
I have finally learned how to enjoy the nonsensical dog’s breakfast of dreck in modern-art museums. I artfully remark to anyone within earshot, “This piece signifies an indictment of societal norms." Or, to mix it up, I might say, “This is clearly about social struggles against the establishment." Try it sometime. Every head will nod in agreement.
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