🚀 go-pugleaf

Anybody catch that recent PBS special, "Colors of Infinity," about the
Mandelbrot Set and fractal geometry?  It was well hosted by Aurthur Clarke
with a cameo appearance by Stephen Hawking.  Although the show was most
interesting, I thought Clarke waxed overly eloquent about the Mandelbrot
Set being the "Thumbprint of God" as though it opened up secrets of the
universe so profound as to be mystical.  

What I wonder is, can the Mandelbrot set really be called something that
has always existed, as though it were part of the fabric of the universe,
or is it a mere invention of mankind?  Clarke reveled that "Mandelbrot"
sounded a lot like "Mandala" and wondered what cosmic significance lived
behind that coincidence.  I'm sure such an idea would cause Carl Sagan to
roll over in his grave as he always maintained that such patterns were only
coincidences of human perception as with the "face on Mars" or the "egplant
that looked like Richard Nixon's head." One wonders what Clarke would have
thought about the cinnamon roll in a Tennesse bakery that resembles Mother
Teresa.

My own sense of coincidence was sparked (but I'm a sicko) when I realized
that the dark part of the Madelbrot Set looked a lot like someone's
derriere and if tipped ninety degrees (to properly orient the bum) it
suddenly transformed into an image of a little Budda complete with pointy
cap and hands to the side as though meditating in the lotus position.  This
brings us full circle back to Clarke's idea in that remnants of the
Mandelbrot Set can be found in the religious art of many cultures from
Christian stained glass to Moslem mosaic tilings.  Even beyond that, to the
collective unconscince of Carl Jung's psychology as mirrored in the artwork
of one of his patients.  Clarke even speculates that the mind computes
using fractals as when he closes his eyes and presses on his eyelids,
patterns similar to Madelbrot patterns arise.  Similar patterns supposedly
also arise from drug induced hallucinations as evidenced by the Paisly
prints of the 60's.

My own feeling is that all of this is just a little too mystical for a
mathematical function.  It seems that humans try to find patterns where
none exist.  Not that there are no patterns but that they don't rise to the
level of the cosmic fingerprint of God.  One scientist, who has used
fractal geometry to create a successful computer image compression company,
stated that the ever increasing and, to casual observation, unpredictable
patterns found in the fractals and the Mandelbrot Set answer the question
of how an omniscient God created a universe with free will.

I think it cheapened the show that they used Stephen Hawking in a cameo
role as though his very presence would lend creedence to some of the wilder
speculations trotted forth for the public to lap up like dogs being fed
with crumbs from the master's table.  But hey, maybe the entire universe
can be algorithmically compressed to a single equation.  Then, of course,
you have found God.  OTOH, maybe the Mandelbrot Set is something much more
prosaic.

Dave Greene