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Fractal of the Day
by Jim Muth
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Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image is a scene in the fractal that results when Z^(0.06) and Z^2 are combined, and C is added. The bubbly effect was achieved by rendering the image with the outside set to 'fmod' and the proximity set to 0.5. Since almost all my energy went into the writing of the philofractal discussion, I gave the image no name other than the date. The render time of 2 minutes is fair enough. The pre-rendered GIF image will be available before long on the FOTD web site at: There is a curious phenomenon that happens when one writes philosophy such as I have been writing these past few days. When I am leading into the depths of despair, as I have been doing to this point, the comments from believers are few and minor. But when I start leading back to hope, as I will be doing from here on, the skeptics come to life, and point out every minor wrong turn my argument has taken. It is almost as though skeptics enjoy bad news even more than believers enjoy good news. When I ended yesterday's burst of philosophy, I had reached the point of hopeless despair. I had reached the level at which the English mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell must have been when, after considering the scientific view of the human situation, he wrote that no philosophy not based upon total despair can hope to endure. At this point I wonder whether any entire intelligent race, once it reaches the depths of spiritual emptiness we find ourselves in, can hope to endure. We must find a meaning for life; we must find spiritual hope. We cannot continue to see ourselves as errant vagaries of a mindless universe. The hope we find must be based on fact, not on delusion. As an intelligent species, we will recognize the delusion and if we try to delude ourselves, it will not work. The hope must be hope for our individual selves and not be deferred to some hypothetical descendants at some hypothetical time in the distant future when we as individuals will be long gone. If we fail to find the hope, or if the bleak rational view is correct and there is no hope to be found, then I fear our race is doomed to imminent extinction. Our problem is that we have come to an actual realization of our hopeless situation. As a hypothetical example of the result of hopelessness, I offer the following speculation. We often wonder why, if the universe is filled with intelligent life, we have yet to find the slightest trace of that intelligence. I wonder whether there is a natural limit to how much intelligence a race can evolve. Perhaps, when a race reaches a level where its intelligence causes it to assume that its existence is meaningless, it soon thereafter self-destructs, as our race is threatening to do. But what is spiritual hope. Hope is defined as desire with the expectation of fulfillment. Spiritual hope is the hope that our lives have some hidden meaning. But for this to be true, our conscious existence must extend beyond the bounds of earthly life, for there is nothing but ultimate meaninglessness in our physical earthly lives. As Mike Traynor said in a recent letter, an afterlife either always has existed or never has and never will exist, and no amount of understanding of the physical world can change it. I might add that if time is an illusion, as some claim, such a life need not be an 'after' life. When playing the card game of bridge, one must sometimes assume that a certain opponent holds a certain card, and play his cards as if it were so. If the opponent does not hold the card, then the contract cannot possibly be made, and it makes no difference how the cards are played. But if the opponent does hold the critical card, then proper play can bring home the contract. Our fate is like a game of bridge. If we assume that this brief life is all that exists, we can do nothing but sit back and try to divert our attention with insignificant distractions while we wait for the inevitable end of both ourselves and all humanity. If we assume that this life and this world are but tiny parts of all that exists, then we have sparked a glimmer of hope. Where we might go from here will be the topic for future discussions. Deep blue sky, puffy white clouds, gentle winds, low humidity, a temperature of 81F 27C -- all this combined to make the day absolutely perfect here at Fractal Central on Tuesday. The cats were so happy that they paused to give thanks to the great cat. For me, the day was on the slow side. Today promises to be the same. The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and look toward the light. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com |
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times.
