fractal patterns in nature

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/fractal-patterns-in-nature/

 

Niiiiice. Of course i have to say it. The "Mountains" one looks like DMT crystals precipitating . . .

The fractal nature of nature is crazy-ass. Apparently the pattern that colliding supermassive black holes make as they spiral around each other is exactly the same pattern that electrons make around the nucleus of atoms . . .

 

Yes I saw this too. It's very interesting how we see the same fractal patterns that occur in nature while under the influence of psychedelics. They basically enable us to bypass our human cognitive filters to experience the mathematical structure of existence itself.

 

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That's just wicked retawded!!

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/insect-eggs/oeggerli-photography

 

"The fact that abstract mathematics is ubiquitous throughout nature, including all of fundamental physics, is the foremost reason nobody has yet been able to state the materialist position in a logically consistent manner. If the structuring... principles of the physical world are not themselves physical--but instead, abstract--then there is no way to deny the existence of the non-physical without denying the existence of the physical as well. This is no less true when we're talking about rocks than when we're talking about minds." - my freind

 

insect eggs are disgusting dope.

but cool shit Cataclysmic

 

It probably doesn't mean anything, but its odd that the most famous fractal, the mandlebrot set, looks like it has a buddha in it. Even the stuff coming out of the top of his head is just like whats in many statues.

 

if you haven't seen it already, this fractal video is fuckin sick:
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=407289

 

What? Sorry to be so contentious but the structuring principles of the physical world are physical. This is easily observed. And the condition of being "abstract" has nothing to do with being material or immaterial (but it's all material anyway). This quote is a bunch of grandiose nonsense.

 

it's awesome how fractals can have non-integer dimensions, for example the koch fractal's dimension is 1.26.

 

one of my favorite fractals is that of the atom and the solar system

 

I like conceptions of society itself as a sort of fractal. What we call "society" is simply the cumulative force of generations of humans actively living their lives--obtaining what is required for their physical existence and continued expansion and such--which consists of repeating structural patterns with increasing complexity throughout the course of its development.

 

In thinking about my 13 year old niece who just got her period and announced that she is officially a woman now but wants to try to eek as much fun and play out of the remainder of summer as she can reminded me of this thread.

There is a fractal relationship between the physical development of a human being in her lifetime in relation to her social maturity that eerily mimics the relationship between the fact that our ability to manipulate the physical sciences (e.g. nuclear weapons threat) far exceeds our social development.

My niece's body is saying she is an adult but she wants to act like a child. i applaud this, but it seems very much like our ability to nuke the shit out of each other when we cannot even take more than a few years (if that much!) off from war (somewhere on the planet) during the latter half of the 20th century.

 

The fact that in America we can buy, for instance, a car assembled in Japan with components produced all over the world kinda implies a high level of social development; each one of us participates in this insanely complex global economy every single day. But I see what you're saying. Reminds me of a nice quote I can't seem to find right now, something about how we are "emotional apes with a nuclear arsenal..."

 

i like to think of time as a fractal. think about the fraction of your life that one day takes up (or one minute, hour, year, etc). when you were a baby, a day was a major portion of your life. you can probably remember things seemed to last forever, or take a long time when you were a little kid. but now, a day is a lesser portion of your life. the days might seem to fly by. and if you're just a young buck like myself, you know it's only gonna get faster. feels like spiraling in/down. from the outside of a big spiral. faster and faster.

time by pink floyd


my favorite fractal is in a pine cone
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://davidpratt.info/physics/phi11.jpg&imgrefurl=http://davidpratt.info/pattern1.htm&usg=__PhjVNjyLxvA0mqzXmrD4RLsU4DA=&h=292&w=250&sz=12&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=uhuXevxomTlJMM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpine%2Bcone%2Bfractal%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26biw%3D1360%26bih%3D576%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=970&vpy=215&dur=550&hovh=233&hovw=200&tx=96&ty=145&ei=ZTaQTPCELtmd4AbghoW0DQ&oei=ZTaQTPCELtmd4AbghoW0DQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0

that site is crazy too.
"The sun has a radius of approximately 432,000 miles (432,475) and a diameter of about 864,000 miles, while the moon has a radius of 1080 miles and a diameter of 2160 miles. Silver, the metal associated with the moon, has an atomic weight of 107.9. In addition, 108 is roughly the average distance between the sun and earth in terms of solar diameters, the average distance between the surfaces of the moon and earth in terms of lunar diameters, and the diameter of the sun in terms of earth diameters (actual figures: 107.5, 108.3, and 109.1 respectively). As a result of these remarkable ‘coincidences’, the moon has the same apparent size as the sun, as seen from earth, and almost exactly covers the disk of the sun during a total solar eclipse."

"Each human heartbeat takes about 8 tenths of a second. The time-periods occupied by each of the five cardiac phases, reckoned on the basis of one hour, are as follows: auricular systole, 432 seconds; ventricular systole, 1296 seconds; repose of the entire heart, 1728 seconds; diastole, 3024 seconds; and ventricular diastole, 2160 seconds. There are on average 4320 heartbeats in one hour, 8640 beats in 2 hours, 12,960 beats in 3 hours, 17,280 beats in 4 hours, 21,600 beats in 5 hours, and 25,920 beats in 6 hours.* In these figures we can recognize the digits of the four yugas, the Messianic cycle, and the precessional cycle (whose lengths are all multiples of 12, 60, 72, and 360). Thus, again and again we find correspondences between what takes place in the small (the microcosm) and what takes place in the great (the macrocosm) – as above, so below."

 

Nature always employees the most efficient and simplistic means to achieve it's goal, whether it be the structure of a galaxy or a one celled organism.
If something works you stick with it. That is why you see fractals all throughout nature at every conceivable level.

The geometric and mathematical manifestations of this simple design of maximum efficiency and conservation are what we are seeing.
Sure it's cool to see and recognize, but in my mind how else could it be?
It is just such a common sense, intuitive aspect of nature that I really am baffled by all the hoopla over fractals, as if they were some alien concept that just arrived on the planet.
Maybe the many hours I spent as a kid watching how a tree grows, flowers and ultimately produces fruit and the myriad patterns that entails, or watching ants go about their busy schedules for hours on end have given me a different outlook.
Even the way the leaves of a pot plant will grow in a spiral around the stem so that they are not blocking the light of the leaf below it. That is a fractal pattern based on simplicity of design, conservation of energy and maximum efficiency

As far back as I can remember I have noticed the patterns in nature all around me. In the form and structure of objects, to the form and structure of behaviors.
It just always struck me as the way it is.
All that fractals represent to me is the beauty and transcendent simplicity with which nature goes about it's business. Awe inspiring and magnificent, I always see the fractal patterns in my life.