Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:

Today's image takes us back to the fantastic world of evaporation as seen through the MandNewt06a formula.  The image consists mostly of inside stuff, though it appears to be a 50-50 inside-outside mixture.  All that remains of the outside stuff is the dots.  The rest has pretty much evaporated away.

I really like today's image, which I think deserves an honest rating of an 8.

The name "Frosty Snowflakes" refers to the white dots scattered about parts of the scene.  These dots are the remains of the outside stuff, which has all but totally evaporated away.

The calculation time of 3-3/4 minutes is a bargain, considering that the result rates an 8.

A hi-def version is posted at:

http://www.emarketingiseasy.com/TESTS/FOTD/jim_muths_fotd.html

The original web site with all the bells and whistles is at:

     http://www.Nahee.com/FOTD/

It is not up to date, though Paul has just posted a message to the Fractint list, letting us know he is still around.

The formula that creates today's image appears to behave differently when used with different programs and math routines.  So I cannot guarantee that the image generated on all systems will be identical to the image on the web sites.  Some alternate renderings actually appear to be better than my own however.

Recent messages on the list have my philosophical urges once again rising.  I have read that the four greatest achievements of the human mind are the invention of Calculus, the theory of relativity, the theory of quantum mechanics, and the discovery of fractals.  I pretty much agree.  Each of these advances has expanded our view of the world we live in and at the same time raised new questions about the nature of reality.

The Calculus demonstrated that, in some mysterious fashion, the laws and workings of the physical world can be encoded into the abstractions we call numbers.  Often we can learn more by working with the numerical models than we can by direct observation.

Relativity demonstrated that time and space are not what they seem.  According to relativity, time, space, mass, energy, acceleration, gravity, and so on are not the absolute fixed things they appear to be from our limited perspective, but are united in higher dimensions into different aspects of a single thing.  Relativity has so far passed all the tests devised to check it.

Quantum mechanics tells that the sub-atomic particles that make up the physical world do not exist as actual particles until we look to see them.  When we are not looking, nothing exists but energy fields of varying strength that can be represented only as numbers.  This raises the perplexing question of how things that exist only when someone is looking can be the building blocks of physical objects that continue to exist even when no one is looking.  Quantum mechanics has also passed all the tests devised to check it.

Unfortunately for the peace of mind of theoretical physicists, relativity and the quantum do not fit comfortably together.  The two theories predict the existence of things that are incompatible with each other, and so far have not been blended into a single theory of everything (except the self-awareness of those working on the theory). 

Fractals demonstrate that simple everyday numbers are indeed capable of creating entire infinite universes.  (We must remember that complex numbers are made of simple numbers.)  When we work with fractals, we see the behavior of reiterated complex numbers being transformed by machines into abstract shapes that have all the features of real physical objects except actual objective existence other than as pictures.

This leads me to wonder whether much the same thing is happening in our everyday lives.  Are our conscious minds like computers?  Are our minds actually computing machines, constantly transforming the behavior of the far-more-complex quantum numbers into the mental images we take to be solid objects filling the four-dimensional spacetime world that we appear to live in?

I'll have more to say about this in upcoming discussions.  One thing certain is that my ideas will respect no sacred cows of either science, religion or politics.

Now on to the weather report.  Friday began with clouds moving in here at Fractal Central.  Rain moved in during the afternoon, while the temperature hovered around an unseasonably chilly 46F +8C.  The fractal cats disapproved of the chilly wet conditions -- from the comfort of their indoor shelf of course.

The humans' day was acceptable, though nothing to applaud.  The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours.  Until then, take care, and weed out the sacred cows that hold up progress.

Jim Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


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