; Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 11:22:07 -0500 ; From: Jim Muth ; Subject: [Fractint] FOTD 13-02-03 (In the Dog's Eye [7]) ; Id: <1.5.4.16.20030213112519.2f475d8e@pop.mindspring.com> ; --------- ; FOTD -- February 13, 2003 (Rating 7) ; ; Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: ; ; Today's image is a blow-up of a midget that lies on the filament ; extending outward from the main valley of yesterday's 'Fido' ; image. Since this valley forms the eyes of the dog's head, I ; named the image "In the Dog's Eye". ; ; The image is one of the best scenes I have yet found in the ; fractured fractals with an exponent of Z between 1 and 2. I ; rated it at an honest 7. Most of the rating is earned by the ; < tdis > option, which colored the image. The image is unusu- ; ally detailed, and benefits greatly by being rendered at a high ; resolution. ; ; An unusual feature of today's fractal is the trip out from it ; back to the surface of its parent. As the outzoom progresses, ; one attractive fractal scene after another comes into view. ; Several of these larger scenes could just as well have qualified ; as today's FOTD, but I chose the deepest one I could safely ; reach. ; ; On my aging Pentium 200mhz machine the parameter file renders in ; 7 minutes. On a faster machine it will render in less time. ; But the fastest way of all to see the image is to download it ; from Paul's FOTD web site at: ; ; ; ; or from Scott's site at: ; ; ; ; As I wrote two days ago, when I read the book "Relativity and ; Common Sense" by Hermann Bondi, I was forced to change the way I ; thought about the universe at large. No longer could I assume ; that the laws of the limited part of the world which I observed ; through my limited senses were valid over the vast range of ; physical existence. But even though the vast physical universe ; worked differently than my limited sensory input led me to ; assume, it was still out there, solid and real, regardless of ; whether it was being observed, a firm foundation upon which the ; discipline of science had been built. ; ; After fascinating myself with the curiosities of relativity, I ; turned to quantum mechanics, went to the local library, and read ; as many books as I could find which I was able to understand. ; To begin, I found far fewer popularized books of QM. This is ; because QM is so strange that it is difficult to accurately ; express in everyday words. ; ; I discovered that the tiny microscopic world is far stranger ; than the vast world of relativity. QM can be fully described ; only by arcane mathematics, and can be fully grasped only by ; those who understand the math. I found that there are several ; interpretations of what the math means, and that the leading ; interpretation is, (or was at that time), the Copenhagen ; Interpretation. This interpretation states (as best I could ; understand it) that at the atomic level there is no reality -- ; that reality is somehow created when a quantum thing is ; measured. ; ; Now my curiosity was really aroused. The physical world is ; real, I thought. My senses show me that it is really out there. ; I can see it and hear it. Even in the dark, when I cannot see ; or hear things, I know they are still there because I can feel ; them when I bump into them. And what about things that really ; happened when no one was there to observe them, such as the ; formation of earth's moon? ; ; It made no sense at all. How can real physical objects be built ; of electrons, protons and neutrons that are not real? A house ; cannot be built of imaginary bricks. Either the atoms must be ; real or the objects must be unreal. Was the science that I ; admire based on an illusion? And I found other quantum things ; that seemed absolutely impossible. I found that a single object ; (if quantum things are objects) can be in more than one place at ; a single moment of time. I found that quantum information can ; be transmitted instantaneously over any distance, faster than ; light, which relativity had just told me was impossible. I ; found that sub-atomic things can go forward, backward, or even ; sideways in time. ; ; In short, I found that the universe is not only stranger that I ; imagined, it is stranger than I could possibly imagine. And ; even more telling, I found that not even the quantum experts ; know what is going on down there. There are many competing ; interpretations of QM, with the ultimate goal being to reduce ; the quantum world to something that resembles our everyday ; world, where space is filled with real, spatially separated ; objects, and time flows forward in a straight line. ; ; When I realized how weird the world as described by science had ; become, the world as described by religious mystics, which I ; had recently decided was imaginary, seemed ordinary by ; comparison. This realization marked the beginning of the end ; of my days as a materialistic, Atheistic skeptic. ; ; If I continue this thread, it will be only on the philofractal ; list. Now let's get on to that all-important weather. ; ; Sun and cold winds prevailed here at Fractal Central on ; Wednesday. The sun tried hard, but the snow-covered ground and ; temperature of 26F -3C were too much for it to overcome. As a ; result, the fractal cats endured another day of semi-voluntary ; confinement. The ultimate insult came in the evening, when I ; discovered the cats' food shelf devoid of tuna. They satisfied ; themselves with a few slices of left-over turkey that I managed ; to dredge up. ; ; I see work beside me and the clock on the wall overhead ticking ; all too fast. I had best get busy doing what needs to be done. ; Until next time, take care, and if nothing is real, what am I. ; ; ; Jim Muth ; jamth@mindspring.com ; jimmuth@aol.com ; ; ; START PARAMETER FILE================================ In_the_Dogs_Eye { ; time=0:06:55.07--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotBC1 function=floor passes=1 center-mag=+0.06875740844296324/-2.375913184400092\ 00/2.898133e+011/1/-85/0.00235733226356027 inside=0 params=1.5596104695/0/1234/0 float=y maxiter=8000 outside=tdis periodicity=10 mathtolerance=/1 colors=000o`on_lm_jlZgkYdlVnjYbh_SfbGcc0ed5gdAidFj\ eJleOneTpeYqfasffufkvfoucluajtZgtXesUbsS`rQYrNWqLT\ qIRpGOpEMqEHqECuD6qE7nF8kG9gHAdIBaJCYKDVLESMFDAFPM\ FZXG_YF_ZF`_E`_Ea`DaaDbbCbbCccBcdBdeAdeAef9eg9eg9`\ aDXWHSRLOLPEHNKGSQFXWFaaEegEjmDosDsKeUPdUVdU_cUebU\ l`RjbUicWhdYff_egadhcbjeakg`liamgamfamebmcbnbbnacn\ _cnZcoYdoWdoVdoUemSekQfjOfhMggKgeIhdGhbFh`Di_BiY9j\ X7jV5kU3kS1kR0dS4ZT8SUCMUFKVHJWIHWJGXLEXMDYNBYOAZQ\ 8ZR7_S3aU6_T9YTBWSEVSHTRJRRMPQPOQRMPUKPXIO_EPZHOYK\ OYNOXPOWSOWVNVXNV_NUbNTdNTgMSjMRlMRoMQrMUyPQtMNoKK\ jHHeFE`CBWA8R75M52I34M85QC6TG7XK9`OAcSBgXCk`EndFrh\ GvlHypJuiKrcLnXMkRNgKOdERf2Pa8OYDMUILQNJLTIHYGDbF9\ gE5lQDXaLHuZ2lS1cM0WG0UH2TI4SJ5RK7QL8PMAONBNODMPEL\ QGKRHJSJITKHUMMZBGUNCMdBQZATT9WN6WK8ZIAaGCcFEfDGhC\ IkAKm9Mp7Nr6PeKRTYTGkV3xX6wY8w_Aw`CwbFwcHveJvfLvgO\ viQvjSulUumXuoZup`uqbupar } frm:MandelbrotBC1 { ; by several Fractint users e=p1, a=imag(p2)+100 p=real(p2)+PI q=2*PI*fn1(p/(2*PI)) r=real(p2)-q Z=C=Pixel: Z=log(Z) IF(imag(Z)>r) Z=Z+flip(2*PI) ENDIF Z=exp(e*(Z+flip(q)))+C |Z|