FOTD -- May 09, 2008 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: The philosophical blather continues today. Those who are not philosophically inclined will find the start of the fractal stuff nine paragraphs below. Though materialism (Is it now called energism?) was more popular in the 19th Century, I still sometimes hear claims that physical matter is the ultimate reality. I find this philosophy naive almost to the point of comedy, but some still hold fast to it. The first question that comes to mind is, 'what is physical matter made of?' The answer of course is atoms. But the regress continues, for then we ask, 'what are atoms made of?' and find they are made of sub-atomic particles, mostly protons, neutrons and electrons. If we dare go farther and ask what protons are made of, we find they are made of quarks, but when an electron gets into the mix, the proton becomes a neutron. Only a fool would ask what quarks are made of, but if he did, he would probably find they are currently thought to be multi-dimensional vibrations of super- strings or membranes. And I assume the strings and membranes are made of pure energy. With the electron, things are no better. The electron has both wave and particle aspects, as do all sub-atomic particles when not observed. When an electron is observed, it collapses for the observer's convenience into whatever the observer is looking for. When it spins, and all electrons do something called spin, it must make two full turns before presenting the same face to the observer. And anyone foolish enough to ask what is waving when the electron is in its wave mode will find that nothing is waving. I only hope no one asks how nothing can actually start waving and thereby become something. The last I heard, it is logically impossible for something to come from nothing. Mass and energy have been shown to be different forms of the same thing. Mass is a parcel of energy tied into a knot. But what the heck is energy? Yes, we know it is the ability to do work, but what is it made of? No one seems to know. They say the question is silly. (And maybe it is!) It appears we have come to the end of the line and answered absolutely nothing. Physical matter is not the ultimate reality, nor are the atoms that matter is made from. Sub-atomic particles are even less real. Energy is the ultimate reality, and without invoking a god, no one has the slightest idea what it is or where it comes from. And if we invoke a supernatural god, we must then ask where that god came from and what he, she or it is made of. Something is wrong somewhere in this dead-end line of thought. Something, perhaps many things, or even everything we assume to be a fact must be wrong. But I have been searching for over half a lifetime for the flaw. Dogmatic religion has no answers, equally dogmatic science has no answers, and dreamy-eyed mysti- cism, though it might have some answers, is as much a failure in communicating those answers as are the quantum physicists at communicating exactly what goes on down there. All this leaves the questioning segment of humanity lost in the wilderness, which for all I know might be our natural predestined state. Now as for today's fractal image, it rates a 6. There have been worse and there have been better. I named it "Ruffled Flour- ishes", which has nothing to do with the chief of state. It was created when I subtracted 1/4 part of Z^3 from the Mandelbrot set to produce a M-set rotated 180 degrees, with lots of extra nooks and crannies (not crooks and nannies) along the X-axis. Today's image is located in one of these extra crannies in the East Valley area of the main M-set of its parent. When rendered in the usual manner, the image falls flat, so I have rendered it with the outside set to 'tdis', which gives it just enough life to make it worth being declared FOTD for May 09. The calculation time of 1-1/2 minutes is gloriously fast. But it would be even more glorious to surf over to the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and enjoy the finished image posted there. Thursday started with light rain here at Fractal Central. The rain ended before noon however, leading to a cloudy bright afternoon with a temperature of 73F 23C. The fractal cats enjoyed the weather from the comfort of their window seats. My day was once again slow. Who could ask for more? The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and my philosophical muse is still raging. Also, if such a thing as absolute truth exists, where does it lie and how do we recognize it? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Ruffled_Flourishes { ; time=0:01:28.30-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident center-mag=-0.059072035782852/+0.0135011860476962/\ 2.357457e+007/1/67.35/0 params=1/2/-0.25/3/0/0/0/0 float=y maxiter=1500 inside=0 outside=tdis periodicity=10 colors=000q`5pY6oU9nRCYQAHP9caOynayf_yZZySYxOPxLGw\ I7wF5nU6ehDXwJZvH_vG`vFauEbuDcuCohMzWVzJczLUoNLePB\ VR5LS5K_5Kf9JnHJuPNmSRfVU_YYT`aar`ardarhL_kQUoWNLp\ BFoBTb5fR5lT5rU5xVAzWFzXKzaIqeGhjE_nCRrAOMWWVaccgk\ lmafeS`YzpOziKzbHyXEuQBqJ8nD5rCMnLIkTEhaAei6bq5ZpC\ VZKRnTNm`KmhQSiVli`lielikliplivlizliunfppdkrbet_`v\ YWxWPxTRyUTyUUzVWzVYzWZzW`zXzrPrwTazXDzZHz_Lz`PzaS\ zaWzb_zcczdfzddtbcl`beZaYXQS_`RWkQTvPPzOMxWJobGfjD\ HzrVrEZqBbq9fp7jp5no5ro5vn5PZZzk5yn5wp5tr5rt5to5vk\ 5xf5zb5zY5zU5yS5uQ5qO7GzeXiPmN9qTDuZGxcJziMzoOznPz\ mQwlRskRojSkiThiT`oCzzGTu5ti5gc5VY5SV7QSHOPQMM_KJi\ IHrJNjJScJYXKbQKhJKmCEq5Hr5Kr5Nr6Pr6Ss7Vs8Ys9_s9bm\ AegAhaAwF_xN5kXAZfRElqNogVqZcsQkuHtw8xKozy5wu5srAn\ oFjlKeiPafUGU_PZZYcZQgJYgRegZDzFVtTlgeuzNzlbzVrwZj\ pbcifWUZjZd_cjPicMnYKsSHzKDzLExMFwNGuOGsPHrQIpRJoR\ JmSQkTWiUagVgog5tk5sg5rd5 } frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; Jim Muth a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(((-a*b*g*h)^j)+(p4)), k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================