; Date: Thu, 08 May 2008 21:45:38 -0400 ; ; To: fractint@mailman.xmission.com ; cc: philofractal@lists.fractalus.com ; ; From: Jim Muth ; Reply-To: Fractint and General Fractals Discussion ; ; ; Subject: [Fractint] FOTD 09-05-08 (Ruffled Flourishes [6]) ; ; Id: <1.5.4.16.20080508214833.2aef9872@pop.mindspring.com> ; --------- ; ; 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: ; ; ; ; 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========================================= ; ; ; _______________________________________________ ; Fractint mailing list ; Fractint@mailman.xmission.com ; http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint