FOTD -- February 02, 2003 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I'm depressed today. As soon as I posted yesterday's FOTD, I turned on the radio and heard the bad news. This latest space disaster has me down. As the difficulties in the foundering U.S. space program continue to add up, it is becoming ever more apparent that neither I nor anyone else will live to see humanity reach the stars. It is almost as apparent to all but dreamers that humanity will *never* reach the stars. I am not shocked. I never expected to see men actually traveling to other solar systems in my lifetime, but back in the 60's, when I was young and enthusiastic, (i.e. a dreamer), I expected to see, before I left this world, men (and women) regularly traveling to Mars, and humanity actually colonizing the moon. Now I realize that I shall never see men on Mars, and unless a miracle happens, that I shall never see men even on the moon. In fact, I'll consider myself lucky if I live to see the earth- orbiting space station completed and in full operation. As I have realized for the past 15 years or so, earth's resources are limited. The planet simply has too few resources to support both an out-of-control population explosion and a workable space program. We didn't even have the resources to build the super- conducting-supercollider down here on earth. The problem lies in our very nature. We are totally dependent on the environment of earth's biosphere for our continued existence. To venture into space, we will always need to take a bit of that environment with us. And we have underestimated the magnitude of the task of maintaining that environment. We have put too much faith in the ability of technology to overcome our natural biological limitations. The only way humanity could ever reach deep space would be to find a way to change its nature. We would need to find a way to transfer our awareness, complete with senses, to some kind of artificially self-aware machines, (is artificial self-awareness an oxymoron?), and travel to the stars as robust androids with replaceable parts and unlimited life expectancies. But this is pure fantasy. Before it could be done, or even considered, we must determine what a self-awareness is and how it might be transferred. Since this appears to be impossible, perhaps even foolish to consider, the presence of humanity in deep space appears to be unachievable, and no amount of science and technology can change that. One good feature about exploring the fractal world is that it consumes very little of earth's limited resources. Today's image is part of the fractal that comes into being when three parts of Z^(-15) are subtracted from three parts of Z^(-1.5) and 1/C is added. It is another of my 'evaporated' images, this time brought to life by the bof60 inside fill. I named the image "Spots Before the Eyes". One glance will reveal why. If my mood had been brighter, I might have rated it a bit higher than the rating of an average 5. The render time of 16 minutes is trying, but may be overcome by downloading the completed GIF image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The weather was unpleasant here at Fractal Central on Saturday. The sky was too cloudy, too many sprinkles of rain fell, the air was too damp, the wind was too raw, and the temperature of 36F 2C was too chilly. As a result, the fractal cats were too testy, and a spat broke out between them when both Thomas and Tippy wanted the same spot by the heat. But the quarrel soon ended, and the duo finished the day with a conciliatory treat of tuna. Today is starting the same as yesterday. Hopefully, the cats' mood will not be as sour. Until next FOTD, take care, and those stars keep getting farther away, don't they? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ SpotsBeforeTheEyes { ; time=0:16:39.60--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-1.28158038164121200/+0.099152116886171\ 08/17371.64/1/97.5/3.0669491252188763e-010 params=3/-1.5/-3/-15/0/1e+100 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=bof60 logmap=yes periodicity=250 colors=000htYfsYdrZbqZ`pXZoYXnZVmZTl_Rk_Pj`NibLh`K\ fZJdXIaVH_TGYREWPDTNCRLBPJAMH9KF7ID6GB5D94B7395161\ 27427637837A47D47F58H58J68M68O78L78N78P9AOBBPDDPEE\ PGFPHGPIHRJIQKJRLKOMJQMKQMKPMKQMKQZVS_WSaYScZSecNd\ _SdXWcT`cQdcNibJmbGrY4x`9wbDvdHufQuhTtjYslasnfrpjq\ rnptqpvroxvnzznwxmuvmsumqsmnqmlpmjnlhlleklcilagl_f\ lXdkVbkTakR_kOYkMXkKVjITjFSjDQjBOj9NjCMfFLcIK`LJXO\ JURIRUHNXGK_GHbFDeEAhD7mC1kD3jD4iD5hE6gE7fE8eE9dFA\ cFBbFCaFD`GE_GFZGGYGHXHIWHJVHKUILTIMSINRIOQJPPJQOJ\ RNJSMKTLKUKKVKMVJLWJKWIKXIJXHJYHIYHIZGHZGG_FG_FF`E\ F`EEaEEaHD`JD_LCZOCYQBXSBWVAVXAUZ9T`9Sc8Re8Qg7Pj7O\ l6Nn6Ms4Lp6Mm7Mk8NhANfBOcCOaEPZFPXGQUHQSJRPKRNLSKN\ SIOTFPT4UT9STDQTIPTMNTRLTVKTZITcGTgFTlDTpBTt6St8Tt\ ATtCTtETtGTtITtKTtMTtOTtQTtSTtUTtVTtXUtZUt`UtbUtdU\ tfUthUtjUtlUtnUtpUtrUtsUmtXgtZ`t`SzhUweVtbXr_YoX_l\ U`jRbgOceLdfMefMefMffMgfM } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; 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, k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================