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October 6, 2012: The Greatest Mystery Oct. 5 Oct. 8 2012 FOTD Home
 Rating 7

greatest mystery

Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: 

Fractals are one of the greatest mysteries, but perhaps the greatest mystery of all is the human brain, which by some strange coincidence is brought to mind by today's image.

The other day on one of those pop-neuro-science shows on TV, I heard the statement that 'you are your brain'.  This sounds harmless enough as long as one does not think too deeply about it, but the deeper one thinks, the less sense the statement makes.  If I *am* my brain, as neuro-science claims, and I *have* a brain, which is a fact, then it is stated that my brain has a brain, which makes no sense at all, since there is only one brain.  Just what is this mysterious 'I' that has a brain?  Maybe the implication is that the 'I' in question is a mere illusion generated by my brain, which would mean the illusion has a brain.  Or maybe the illusion is having an illusion of having a brain.  Or maybe we should simply state that my brain *is* my brain.  Where the heck has reality gone?  I thought science was based on reason and common sense.

Until neuro-science can get its act together and make clear the process of the generation of self-awareness from unconscious meat, the brain will likely remain the greatest mystery.  Since today's image rather resembles a brain, I have named it "The Greatest Mystery".

Almost as non-sensical as the world of neuro-science is the world of the fourth spatial dimension, which exists in the world of mathematics, though not in the world of 'reality', makes even less sense.  Today's image is a near-Julia scene along the X-axis at the eastern edge of the main bay of the (-Z)^(2.5)+C Mandeloid.  It is a four-dimensional scene, since it is double-rotated 1 degree and 1 degree from the exact Julia orientation, and double rotation (around two totally perpendicular axis planes) is not possible in 3-D space.

The image, with its two hemispheres, is very close to being a fractal tree.  A different view might have made it a tree.  But it is not quite close enough to justify a tree-like name.

Even with all the image's color and all the reality and illusion talk, I could give the image a rating no higher than a 7.

Clouds, occasional showers and a cooler temperature of 63F 17C prevailed here at Fractal Central today.  The fractal cats checked the conditions early, then decided to take it easy.  With FL feeling a bit under the weather, the humans simply took it easy.

The next FOTD will be posted in a reasonable time.  Until whenever, take care, and the distance between two objects is determined by the amount of empty space between them.  But empty space is nothing, so how is it possible to have more or less of nothing?

Jim Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


START PARAMETER FILE=======================================

TheGreatestMystery { ; time=0:03:15.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ
  reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basicer.frm
  formulaname=SliceJulibrot5 passes=1 periodicity=6
  center-mag=0.619222/0/8.51924/1/90/0 params=89/0/\
  89/0/0.375/0/0/0/2.5/0 float=y maxiter=10000
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frm:SliceJulibrot5   {; draws all slices of Julibrot
  pix=pixel, u=real(pix), v=imag(pix),
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  b=pi*imag(p1*0.0055555555555556),
  g=pi*real(p2*0.0055555555555556),
  d=pi*imag(p2*0.0055555555555556),
  ca=cos(a), cb=cos(b), sb=sin(b), cg=cos(g),
  sg=sin(g), cd=cos(d), sd=sin(d),
  p=u*cg*cd-v*(ca*sb*sg*cd+ca*cb*sd),
  q=u*cg*sd+v*(ca*cb*cd-ca*sb*sg*sd),
  r=u*sg+v*ca*sb*cg, s=v*sin(a), esc=imag(p5)+9
  c=p+flip(q)+p3, z=r+flip(s)+p4:
  z=(-z)^(real(p5))+c
  |z|< esc }

END PARAMETER FILE=========================================