In 1975 Benoit Mandelbrot published the book “Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension“. It went unnoticed except for its complete rejection from the academic community. Mandelbrot was a genius, he loved geometry and nature and while in the research department at IBM back in the 50’s he really fell in love with the new fangled machines called computers
Computing allowed him to run calculations of curious geometric math mysteries formulated and introduced by Henry Smith and another math guy named Georg Cantor back in the 1880‘s,(had to do with things called iterations). These iterations now known as the Cantor Set were nicknamed the “monsters”.
Next to tackle the iteration monsters were Gaston Julius and Pierre Fatou in the early 19 hundreds (they both got “Sets” named after them which is a big deal in the math world).
Mandelbrot looked at mountains and clouds and the Japanese artwork of Katsushika Hokusai (shown above in “The Great Wave”) studied the Julius Set, poured said ingredients into a really big computer and came up with The Fractal.
It wasn’t until another clever fellow came along and read Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimensions in the late 70’s that I get to the first point of the Science and Art history lesson.
Loren Carpenter was a young computer guy that worked for Boeing.
Carpenter started using the fractals to create backgrounds for Boeing jets and in short order quit Boeing, headed for movie land (Lucasfilms) and used this new computer generated fractal geometry created by Mandelbrot to put together and create the graphics for Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan. So think iterations and Mandelbrot when watching Star Trek, Star Wars and all the Pixar (Carpenter co-founded) wonders. Carpenter is now 73 and very rich.
It was creativity, nature, art, imagination, ingenuity, initiative, freedom and a little math that allowed for fractals to be turned from monsters, one hundred years ago into what may end up solving many of the mysteries of our universe.
Here's what a Julius equation looks like fractalized.
Turns out our body parts are biologic geometric iterations, along with flowers, trees, seashells and according to a tiny number of scientists (that have escaped established academia) the universe is a fractal that iterates like this close up of broccoli.
It wasn’t until around 2000 that Mandelbrot started receiving awards and recognition for his contributions (he died in 2010).
As for Hokusai, he did his best work after he turned 70 and was only appreciated in Japan 50 years after he died because he wasn’t ’classically trained”. And Carpenter? Still creating and very rich.
So go create, look at nature, go play and go live life, with or without acceptance, toys or trophies or use your imagination and get rich..
But first twist a fatty or pour a cocktail and watch this and know whatever created this, created you. Imagine on that for a moment.
11 Dimensions - Mandelbrot Fractal Zoom (4k 60fps)
