to infinity and beyond

Fractals fascinate me. They are a form of art that capture both the logical and emotional artifacts of my mind. Logical, in that the simplest mathematics can generate patterns that are infinitely collapsible or expansive (as in the Mandelbrot fractal on the right), and emotional in the beauty of infinity being tangibly but ironically intangibly described simultaneously.

You see, the Mandelbrot fractal specifically refers to the equation:

Z <=> X^2 + C

(Where C is a constant)

Therefore, substituting any possible number for X, yields a value for Z, which in turn is used as the subsequent value of X to lead to an infinitely expansive (as in the case of numbers larger than 1) or infinitely collapsible (for numbers smaller than 1, which would lead to Z values approaching 0) set of numbers. When graphed, Benoît Mandelbrot assigned the collapsible values to black colors, while numbers that extended to infinity were assigned different colors based on the rate at which they expanded towards infinity.

Thus, the famous Mandelbrot fractal was created. The coolest part however, is that no matter how infinitely far you zoom in, the pattern that any given value for X defines as the Mandelbrot graph is ever-present.

:) *ends randomness*

I bring all of that up because I sort of went through a very significant emotional whirlwind during the past two hours, and it made me think of infinity. I was watching this video my friend Dan sent me about ..you know, those ridiculous conspiracy "world is ending run for your freakin' life and make a space ship before earth goes to hell" kind of videos. And I had stopped right before the conclusion to it began, so OBVIOUSLY I was really distraught and almost crying when I told my dad that the entire powerful populace of the world has been planning to eradicate 93% of our population by 2012. (I fall for these like chocolate - *to panda: eg. "come closer, i will give you BOTH FOR THE PRICE OF ONE"*)

And then came the conclusion. *aaah* *BASKS*

*basks some more*

*still basking*

..Ok. I'll share now. :P

Remember a looong time ago I stated:

"Suddenly, you realize that what you are made of, is in so many ways connected to everything else that exists. That even our small solar system is composed of our Universe, that even our small hearts and minds are components of its energy! Some call it God, others just respect it as what holds everything together or makes everything fall apart." (is nothing something? October, '07)

That was their conclusion as well. Apart from all the fear and love (the two dominant emotions) that we feel in our lives, we are ULTIMATELY a part of the big picture, and that, in and of itself is worth living and dying for.

(VIEW VIDEO STARTING AT 8:40 minutes)


(I know, I know...some of it about the DNA sounds puhrrty quirky) :P
But hearing it from someone else saying it rather than my doubtful mind reiterating it to myself made it seem more concrete and hit home at light speed than turtle pace.

Oh! and I'm going to be coauthoring Dan's blog (link in links list also) in regards to nerdy techy sciency news that I might not mention here. I'm officially the "Science/Philosophy Beat." :D *ASTEROID*