Update: Pamphlet in Progress: http://www.scribd.com/doc/42678527
(http://www.personaltao.com/tao/images/Fractal-Tao.jpg)
I don't know what this topic means yet, but I keep thinking about these words.
I seek to create a new sect of discordia separate from POEE or the Erisian Liberation Front or the Legion of Dynamic Discord or any of that.
the kernel is something like this:
The universe is infinitely complex, but recursive.
ie: You can see recurring patterns and structural similarities at many different levels of magnification.
This is why your biological systems are a pretty good description of our society. (Your circulatory system, for example, has a lot in common with both the transportation system and the economy.)
You, Einstein, and Jeffery Dahmer have basically the same problems.
This is why it makes sense to talk about organizations with the same language we use to describe individuals.
The trials you face in day to day life are a synechdoche of the greater spiritual trials you will face during your life.
This is why you can see the truth in clouds.
how does this belief impact our behavior?
-it suggests that changes you make at a very basic level may impact the greater picture you can only see if you zoom out --- SO LONG AS THOSE CHANGES are part of the pattern.
-it means accepting that the devil's in the details
ritual is the wrong word for the right idea
I seek to develop techniques to be used in day to day life which help develop an awareness of the big picture contained within the little picture -- and vice versa.
Something which connects the individual to the big picture though a ... mythological narrative.
The Jungian Archetypes and Joseph Campbell's Monomyth are probably a good place to start.
how do these ideas strike you cats?
Sounds awesome! Although I don't get all the philosophical references...
<--- Noob
I like the comparison between organic and economic systems particularly.
Quote from: Remington on October 29, 2010, 05:00:29 PM
Sounds awesome! Although I don't get all the philosophical references...
<--- Noob
Carl Jung was a contemporary of Freud. He liked Freud's model of the mind to a point, and then the two went in very different directions.
Jung wrote prolifically about what he called Archetypes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes). These are things (symbols & myths) which occur in almost every human culture. Jung believed they were somewhat core to the human experience, they emerge from what he called the "collective unconscious". For example, nearly every culture has some variation on Beauty and the Beast. Nearly every culture has a trickster figure, and that trickster is pretty similar in most cultures. Coyote and Anansi are practically the same guy, the trickster within all of us.
Joseph Campbell focused on the jungian idea of the Hero. His book The Hero With a Thousand Faces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces) talks about the similarities between all heroic narratives. He thought that there was essentially one story, the story of a child facing a challenge, and in doing so, becoming an adult. (Campbell
loved Star Wars... he thought those films captured this
monomyth particularly poignantly)
Joseph Cambpell's book The Power of Myth sits ever vigilant by my bedside table. Along with
Siddhartha and the
I Ching, it's the book I most frequently crack open when I need advice. I find that reading about Odysseus' trials give me a resolve I need to face my own. We tell this myth over and over again because it is a story about ourselves.
It often seems that one's day to day life is not heroic, it's mundane. Jason slayed a Hydra, whereas I have to pay a cell phone bill and fix my relationship with my girlfriend.
But when I'm working my ass off, lonely and longing for home, I visualize Odysseus at the prow of the boat sailing towards Penelope, and that steels me up for what's next.
Quote from: Cramulus on October 29, 2010, 04:28:27 PM
-it means accepting that the devil's in the details
How about "The Goddess's in the details" ? :)
Also I immediately got the thought that if I'm in the Fractal Cult, then I am the Fractal Cult of which my toes and fingers are members :)
And if we can go down, we can go up, and I'm wondering if, with the global communications and all, can we make something REALLY BIG? I mean, physically big? Something you can see from outer space?
that's a cute image!
You are the cult leader, your fingers and toes are your followers. They must do rituals every day to support the Leader. :lol:
QuoteAnd if we can go down, we can go up, and I'm wondering if, with the global communications and all, can we make something REALLY BIG? I mean, physically big? Something you can see from outer space?
We already have - you can see lights, cities, and the large organs of our collective nervous system from space. (I mean it starts to blur into the landscape as you go up, but it's there)
I guess the fractal logic there is that you are not looking at New York City, you are looking at 10 million individuals living their lives at once. But that's too complex for us to make sense of, we have to use a short hand. But if we can communicate with a few of the people in that big throbbing mass of light and concrete, we can get a pretty good grasp of the whole thing.
The fractal lesson which connects the big and the small is best illustrated by the movers and shakers in this world who HAVE united the small problems and the big problems.
Visualize Martin Luther King... here is a young black man with a family he loves dearly, and he wants to do something about the unfair world that other people built for him. And on a personal level, we're talking about getting seated at a diner, we're talking about two different water fountains, we're talking about a conversation that happens at a dinner table.
And at a macro level we are talking about getting organized and marching and giving speeches everybody will remember for all time.
Somehow those conversations he had with his daughter about why she wasn't allowed to go to Funtown became something larger which united everybody - and we get Martin Luther King Jr day off from school now. Almost every American city has an MLK boulevard.
King was able to springboard his ideas to a higher level of exposure, he was able to transmute words into action which then turned into louder words and bigger action. How did he do this?
He described a current that a lot of people could resonate with. This wasn't an isolated, individual problem he faced, it was a
universal problem which manifests at the
individual level. We cannot fight the big octopus called Racism, we have to deal with its tentacles, the day to day actions which are the limbs of the core idea. They exist on our level of magnification.
Once the signal you are sending out is being
amplified by all the different parts of the network, the change takes on a life of its own, it becomes larger than the individual, but it still carries shades of the original signal.
And this is how I am solving the problems in my relationship.
you read the news and you see that Israel and Palestine are having peace talks again. And nobody thinks they're going to result in peace but they keep trying anyway. Because if they don't, shit, that's like
committing to violence and misery?
And I don't have a lot of hope that these talks are going to fix my relationship, they usually only seem to inflame things. But like conflict in the mideast, if we both approach them with the desire to have peace instead of war, there is a chance we can disarm and redeem ourselves. I got laid yesterday and it gave me hope for the world.
And because he's dead now, you can invent mysterious stories about Mandelbrot. His theories could very well be directly linked to Hermes Trismegistos' teachings.
Let's look at those archetypes. If I understood, they are like patterns which appear in the small picture as well as in the big picture.
So I can define an archetype like "oracle".
I can describe it as "There is a desire for having an instance which gives answer to question."
I can find it in the past: like the Oracle of Delphi.
I can find it in the present: like Google.
I can find it inside myself: like human curiosity
I can find it inside the society: like religions, science, etc.
Does this system allow linking anything to anything?
to paraphrase a favorite --
Everything is connected - but not equally connected. Some things are more directly connected than others.
signal detection is an important problem for anybody that works with Chaos
for example we can view contemporary America through the lens of the fall of rome -- but the significance of this metaphor has a lot to do with how we paint the picture, how we slice up the meaning, how we tell the story. In short it is a signal detection problem.
I think that part of the Fractal Cult initiation will involve learning to recognize the recurring shapes at various levels of magnification.
i'd also like to note that while structural similarities abound, everything is unique. When you're exploring a Mandelbrot fractal, you keep seeing that big butt fractal bug all over the place.. but none of them are identical. Each one of them has its own unique shape and character. And that uniqueness is reflected in all of its parts.
:lulz: btw if anybody gets anything out of my rambling, feedback loop it back at me
this is largely an idea dump. if any of this strikes you as poignant or useful, or you have your own take on those words "Fractal Cult", dump it out!
So, for this fractal thing.
Does this theory support the idea of fractal idiocy?
Take Sarah Palin, for example. Using fractal theory (and observation), can we not deduce that the idea, beliefs, and patterns that make up Sarah are equally as idiotic as the whole? That Palin is not just stupid, she's fractally stupid?
Quote from: Cramulus on October 29, 2010, 04:25:36 PM
(http://www.personaltao.com/tao/images/Fractal-Tao.jpg)
I don't know what this topic means yet, but I keep thinking about these words.
I seek to create a new sect of discordia separate from POEE or the Erisian Liberation Front or the Legion of Dynamic Discord or any of that.
the kernel is something like this:
The universe is infinitely complex, but recursive.
ie: You can see recurring patterns and structural similarities at many different levels of magnification.
This is why your biological systems are a pretty good description of our society. (Your circulatory system, for example, has a lot in common with both the transportation system and the economy.)
You, Einstein, and Jeffery Dahmer have basically the same problems.
This is why it makes sense to talk about organizations with the same language we use to describe individuals.
The trials you face in day to day life are a synechdoche of the greater spiritual trials you will face during your life.
This is why you can see the truth in clouds.
a note about this, piping systems for both water and HVAC mimic the capillary system of blood movement in the body.
also, explaining the movement of electrons in any electrical circuit in laymans terms is easiest when drawing parallels to water piping systems, and thus, biological circulitory systems.
I like the way you think Cram. I've linked this to a few friends who haven't met Eris yet. I'm sure this will draw them here, and that will be no small addition to the board should they stay. They're great thinkers, and one's a rabid Jungian.
I'll have more comments later, currently buried in CAD work. Nice work though.
Quote from: Remington on October 29, 2010, 07:33:23 PM
So, for this fractal thing.
Does this theory support the idea of fractal idiocy?
Take Sarah Palin, for example. Using fractal theory (and observation), can we not deduce that the idea, beliefs, and patterns that make up Sarah are equally as idiotic as the whole? That Palin is not just stupid, she's fractally stupid?
a few observations about this Sarah Palin thing, using my personal subjective lens and fractal logic...
-like any leader, she bears a structural similarity to her followers.
-she is doing well because she is able to grab the small individual problems people have and handle them in the macrocosmic context of big issue politics. In this, she plays the role of a shaman, connecting the individual's actions to a mythological narrative -- and in the process,
creating a world. I think that the world's most influential people are all people who do this- they give the individual a broader context / narrative to explain their lives.
You know how in a fractal you can keep seeing the same shapes over and over again even if you don't zoom in? in comes Christine O'Donnell. She and Palin may as well be cousins. You have a {relatively} young {relatively} attractive conservative female that speaks on a moral frequency and resonates with disenfranchised right wingers leaning towards libertarianism.
This is partially because like-attracts-like. Sarah's involvement in the movement created a receptivity towards similar figures. It's sort of like dating within your "type". My best buddy always dates crazy self-destructive chicks with wild long hair. The tea party always selects outraged mothers who can do the folksy shtick. I bet we'll see another similar character emerge in the next few years, perhaps completing the mystic female trinity of maiden mother and crone. :lol:
Let's zoom out a bit...we're not talking about Sarah Palin or Christina O'Donnel, we're really talking about tea party movement she's riding. Palin is the symbol of that movement, the real mascot. We can see many similarities between Sarah and the Tea Party. And as a result, we can see similarities between Sarah's household and the Tea Party's greater conflict.
hmmmmmmI'm going to cut it off there... I was about talk about the parallels between the tea party and bristol palin's unwanted pregnancy, but I fear I'm making signal detection errors. It's hard to examine stuff like this objectively without infusing it with my political opinions. I might just be using the fractal metaphor as a framework to trash talk the right wing, which doesn't extend our knowledge of either fractals or politics.
so let's reel it back to the personal level again...
The tension between the tea party and the right wing,
& the tension between the tea party and the left wing
is a tension which exists within all of us.
There is an internal battle between autonomy and authority. (when we zoom out this looks like libertarianism vs statism)
There is an internal battle between traditionalism and new ideas (when we zoom out this looks like conservatism vs liberalism)
Within us, there is a battle for control of what is considered "traditional" and "normal" (when we zoom out this looks like GOP vs the Tea Party)
If you want to defeat Sarah Palin on the macro level, you must first defeat her internally.
to really drive home what I'm talking about--- I just went upstairs to the company Halloween party
and there's a chick dressed as a witch - with tea bags hanging from her hat and a picture of Christina-O'Donnell on her chest
and she dressed up her baby as Sarah Palin
see, the similarities are visible regardless of the levels of magnification :lulz:
One thing that strikes me in 'movements' or 'groups' is that most appear to have a central idea articulated in some form so that everyone is on the same page, or come together organically as a group interested in ideas. If Ayn Rand just rambled on about 'hey so I'm starting this thing called Objectivism where we look at these ideas of....' it wouldn't have made much impact. The books are a lightening rod for the basic concept.
Same as, for all the lashings it gets, if you want to try to explain Discordia without the PD (or these days, The BIP, AD, etc) you're going to make your head hurt. Same for the value of the 'manifesto' of art movements.
So probably it's worth identifying maybe the five or six most important concepts and flashing them out as a larger work.
JESUS CHRIST, LIAM
\
:cramstipated:
MIND = BLOWN
Quote from: Placid Dingo on October 30, 2010, 03:38:24 AM
One thing that strikes me in 'movements' or 'groups' is that most appear to have a central idea articulated in some form so that everyone is on the same page, or come together organically as a group interested in ideas. If Ayn Rand just rambled on about 'hey so I'm starting this thing called Objectivism where we look at these ideas of....' it wouldn't have made much impact. The books are a lightening rod for the basic concept.
Same as, for all the lashings it gets, if you want to try to explain Discordia without the PD (or these days, The BIP, AD, etc) you're going to make your head hurt. Same for the value of the 'manifesto' of art movements.
So probably it's worth identifying maybe the five or six most important concepts and flashing them out as a larger work.
still working on it. The central idea isn't fully fleshed out yet, it's onlty a kernel. I need to riff on it and loop it back and forth with you cats until it gains form.
welcome to page 2
I'm starting to think about fractal cult
language and terminology -- and I'll need some help with this
1-----I need a word which describes
a pattern which occurs multiple times at the same level of magnification - such as sarah palin and christina o'donnel.
2-----And I need a word which describes
the similarity between a pattern at one level and a pattern at another level - such as the relationship between one's circulatory system and the economy
ITERATION may be a good word to describe the effects a pattern has on its subpatterns. For example ... and this is the first news article on google news at the moment... http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/Vox-News/2010/1030/Government-workers-We-need-love-too.
Martin Luther King gave the I Had A Dream speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Glenn Beck held a Rally to Restore Honor at the same spot on the same date many years later
Stewart and Colbert are holding a Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear at the same spot a few months later
and now some gov't workers are holding a rally called Gov't Doesn't Suck right before the comedycentral rally
So check it out, we've got four iterations of the MLK speech - it no longer looks like the original speech, nor does the fourth iteration address the same issues as the first iteration... and yet they are closely related.
one thing that's interesting to me is that all the rallies except the comedycentral rally are about Jobs and Freedom.. somehow that message skipped a generation.
reminds me a bit of the clear vertical spaces in an image like this:
(http://www.fractaluniverse.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bifurcation.jpg)
...though to be frank that observation may be a bit sophomoric because I do not entirely grok the maths :p
one place where this may be particularly useful is in historical discussion...
For example, we just hit a milestone in America--the war in afghanistan is now the longest war we've ever fought.
There's a lot of parallels between the series of wars we are fighting in the Mideast and our ill-fated war with Vietnam.
And there are a lot of reasons for this, many of which are rooted in the character of our national defense, the media, and American discourse. These things have a cybernetic relationship.
However! this is where it's important to note that every iteration is unique! history is not predictive, it is suggestive. and nature is full of black swans and surprises. So while our knowledge of Vietnam can help us understand the war in the mid east, it does not necessarily offer up the correct course of action.
I was typing that last post from my couch, on my netbook.
My friend Mike sat up from the couch, having landed there after a long night of drinking, and the first words out of his mouth were, "You should name that plant Mandlebrot."
signal detection, I know. But it's hard to ignore the sensation that the universe is actively playing with me
this might be one of the words I was looking for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurrence_relation
In mathematics, a recurrence relation is an equation that recursively defines a sequence: each term of the sequence is defined as a function of the preceding terms.
that's a really succinct way of describing what I'm talking about. There is a RECURRENCE RELATION between the MLK speech and the Jon Stewart rally. Its definition is a function of the preceding terms.
I got a little lost with some of those.
The way I interpreted the idea was that 'bigger ideas' have patterns that can be traced into smaller ideas.
So We can look at the conflict between East and West, and them get smaller,
Iraq and American conflict
Conflict between two armies in that war.
Conflicts between two soldiers in that group.
Conflicts between two ideas in that soldiers mind.
BUT ALSO can be applied to completely different things; two companies, two idealogies etc.
Though we can use a similar concept set to explore each of these ideas in detail.
The list before looked more like a series of coincidences, which while interesting, weren't where I thought this idea was really going. To use the Vonnegut terminology, the MLK speech felt more like a 'Granfalloon (false link).'
I saw it as looking at patterns, like the way Improvisation skills in Drama also apply for living an interesting and engaging life.
Or the link between trying to pick up in a club, and selling someone a mobile phone.
Also, this page on 'From Hell' looks good (spoilers apleanty) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell
Moore says he regarded the Ripper murders as essentially a summing up of the late 19th century, and also that they forshadowed much of the 20th.
Was apparently influenced by Douglas Adams 'Holistic Detective Agency' series, in that the concept was that you must solve the mystery holistically; to solve the mystery you must solve the society in which it happened.
Quote from: Liam on October 31, 2010, 10:29:32 AMI know its a bit daft, but my head keeps sticking on 'as above so below' with the things that are like things bit, even though it has nothing to do with it.
Occurred to me too. How does it have nothing to do with it, though? Seems like exactly what we ;re talking about no?
I was gonna shoop "As above so below" in a cute font, repeated fractally to it looks like a Cantor set. Maybe later.
"AS ABOVE, SO BELOW" is probably a good line to go on the "core idea" list
Quote from: Placid Dingo on October 30, 2010, 03:28:52 PM
The list before looked more like a series of coincidences, which while interesting, weren't where I thought this idea was really going. To use the Vonnegut terminology, the MLK speech felt more like a 'Granfalloon (false link).'
I saw it as looking at patterns, like the way Improvisation skills in Drama also apply for living an interesting and engaging life.
Or the link between trying to pick up in a club, and selling someone a mobile phone.
good point on the granfaloons... And that's part of why this feedback is important -- the challenge is to come up with a useful and poignant model for understanding the universe without suffering from confirmation bias and other signal detection problems. The question here is -- what relationship does the original MLK speech have to the Rally to Restore Fear and/or Sanity? Can we get a better understanding of the latter rallies by understanding the former rallies? What kind of recurrence relation do they have?
my gut feeling is that we're looking at iterations of the same shape - charismatic leader summarizes his constituents emotions in a provocative and engaging way, infusing them with a renewed sense of purpose and motivation, catapulting them into higher levels of participation and activism. But on the other hand, am I just taking an event and generalizing it until it sounds like some kind of truth?
On the topic of
METHODSI said earlier that I want to develop techniques which help you mentally connect the "below" to the "above". So now I want to explore the concept of Stichomancy...
QuoteStichomancy (literally, divination from lines) is the practice of seeking answers to the great metaphysical questions, as well as trying to gain insight into the meaning of existence and reality, by reading random passages from a book such as the Bible or the I Ching.
Rastafarians are known for this. Smoke a J, open the bible to a random page, there's your advice. If it doesn't seem relevant yet, smoke another J. Eventually it will. You've just gotta be in the right headspace to grok the correspondences.
I've been doing this a lot recently too. I've been getting divinations from the radio - I ask Eris a question like "What's this party going to be like tonight?" turn on the radio, give the dial a spin, and quite often it lands on somebody saying something which perfectly answers the question.
The solution to your problems is already in your head, you just have to draw it out by framing it with a new context.
If we live in a fractal, we can understand the big patterns by examining the small patterns -- and vice versa. Perhaps there is a good method for this. More thoughts on this later.
Probably one of the points that needs clarification is are you trying to say that...
It's useful to think that were exist in these kind of fractals (in the Discordian-Bokonist sense that we can construct and develop our own sense of reality by consciously developing our own beliefs (Probably Cain's Discordianism and Perfect Nihilism is the type of thing i'm getting at.))
OR
We indeed DO live in these kinds of fractals. That there is objective value in examining the reactions of individuals in situations and applying these patterns to countries, in the same way that a scientist can experiment on a mouse to learn about humans.
I thoguht for a while about why the MLK-Sanity link didn't make sense to me, but 'As above, so below' did it for me. It feels like MLK to Sanity is going sideways; which is useful but not what I had my head around. (actually I have already revised this at the bottom)
Firstly, we're not trying to understand one thing, but trying to piece the larger elements into the smaller to get a clearer picture of the whole.
So my process for Rally For Sanity would be
Look at an individual participant. Who are they? Why are they here?
Look at the whole event. What is it? Why does it happen?
We zoom out and apply our gaze to America; where do these values and ideologies place themselves in the context of America itself. What is the conflict between fear and rationality on this scale.
Then, I'd probably ask these questions of the west
Then the World
Then maybe zoom in again. Where do these ideas and values come in to my life as an individual?
And how are some of the basic CONCEPTS by which I define myself affected by these ideas.
So then the recurrence relation, that we can see patterns repeat. This is I guess where we get to look at repetitions. Possibly one point here is that not every 'sideways move' represents a repeating pattern, but maybe elements.
Required reading here is Survivor by Chuck Palahnuik btw.
So maybe an archtype approach is good?
We have Luther King as the hero in a few senses...
We have 'the social movement'
We have 'a shared vision'
We have ...ohh shit, there has to be a cool term for this... anyway, whatever you call 'articulating a vision so that people have something explicit to visualise as a goal' MLKs Black and White children, in the same way HG Wells had his Submarine.
We had 'racial politics'.
We had 'over-heored' (in that MLK like any of the 'good guys' is over idealised.
We had 'Prelude to tragic death'
And actually when I put it like that you can see a lot of patterns. Hopefully not the last.
If you wanted to cause your own brain to explode one think that could be done is to collect and define elements of patterns and use that to define phenonoma.
Anyway, that's as much as I can do before I confuse myself.
Quote from: Placid Dingo on October 31, 2010, 01:43:51 PM
Probably one of the points that needs clarification is are you trying to say that...
It's useful to think that were exist in these kind of fractals (in the Discordian-Bokonist sense that we can construct and develop our own sense of reality by consciously developing our own beliefs (Probably Cain's Discordianism and Perfect Nihilism is the type of thing i'm getting at.))
OR
We indeed DO live in these kinds of fractals. That there is objective value in examining the reactions of individuals in situations and applying these patterns to countries, in the same way that a scientist can experiment on a mouse to learn about humans.
If understand the question properly
within this model
#2 is true therefore #1 is true.
QuoteFirstly, we're not trying to understand one thing, but trying to piece the larger elements into the smaller to get a clearer picture of the whole.
very well said
QuoteSo my process for Rally For Sanity would be
Look at an individual participant. Who are they? Why are they here?
Look at the whole event. What is it? Why does it happen?
We zoom out and apply our gaze to America; where do these values and ideologies place themselves in the context of America itself. What is the conflict between fear and rationality on this scale.
Then, I'd probably ask these questions of the west
Then the World
Then maybe zoom in again. Where do these ideas and values come in to my life as an individual?
And how are some of the basic CONCEPTS by which I define myself affected by these ideas.
yes yes!
in this example, I think current events in washington can teach us about.... (going from big to small)
a) the world
b) global politics
c) local politics
d) individuals
e) the self
the lesson from this example is - perhaps -
that the cascade of causality works like a pendulum. Conflict polarizes things into multiple camps. Conflict between these camps is inevitable, and over time they will fracture into subcamps. Over time, subcamps become specialized towards particular functions and lose their mass appeal.
Does that work?
QuoteIf you wanted to cause your own brain to explode one think that could be done is to collect and define elements of patterns and use that to define phenonoma.
like TVTropes? :lol:
the idea in kabbalistic (sp?) thought is to overload your brain with the coincidences and correspondences, go totally batshit with the law of fives, and the truth will come through the chaos
which is the symmetrical opposite of zen meditation, where you unload your brain and keep it very still until the truth comes through the chaos.
SEEK YE THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE
on the topic of how this fractal universe idea can be useful to us-------------------------
If you already know how to play the saxaphone, it's a lot easier to learn to play the trumpet. If you already speak Spanish, it's easier to learn French. This is called transferrence, the ability to use your knoweldge of one skill when learning another.
There is a high degree of transferrence if you're learning similar skills. If you already know one programming language, it's way easier to learn others. But your ability to bake a pie does not play a role in that learning.
Psychologists have wondered what if there is a way to amplify the amount of transferrence that takes place. Priming techniques have been somewhat successful - that is, telling people explicitly that they should draw on existing knowledge draws their attention to the ways that the thing they are learning is similar to the thing they already know.
My thinking is that if
ALL IS ONE and
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW, we may be able to transfer knowledge from very unlikely places.
A few pages back I was talking about how visualizing Odysseus helps me deal with being on a long voyage home. Placid Dingo reiterated:
QuoteI saw it as looking at patterns, like the way Improvisation skills in Drama also apply for living an interesting and engaging life.
Or the link between trying to pick up in a club, and selling someone a mobile phone.
Going back to our fractal universe metaphor, transference is possible because we are looking at different parts of basically the same shape. Even though throwing a party and painting a picture are two entirely different activities, one may still teach you a little bit about the other. They both require a certain aesthetic sensitivity.
The patience and discipline we learned in school is a source we can tap into when cleaning the house or cooking dinner. A good cook has developed an attention to detail that will be useful anywhere else in his life, if only he can tap into it.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/4/4b/20060516105854!Fractal_fern_explained.png)
So to that end I propose that the Fern Leaf symbol represents the idea of
relevant structural similarity. ("relevant" being the key word) Each leaf of the fern resembles every other leaf on the fern, even though they are all unique.
Here is the method...When you are facing a challenge, learning a skill, or confused about something, visualize the fern. Focus all your attention on that image. The first thing that pops into your head is something you can learn from, something which holds the key to the issue at hand.
If this is to be taken as reality rather than a way of thinking, it strikes me as sweet, delicious bullshit. The kind you know you should stop eating but you can't.
I have desperately wanted and tried to believe in a Jungian or Campbellian universal motif, but it's seemed wrong from any approach outside wishful thinking. Not only are archetypes ill-defined, they are supposed to be ineffable. However, there is one handling of the monomyth I find immensely satisfying, and that is William Blake's, at least as it is explained by Northrop Frye in
Fearful Symmetry.
There is something profoundly appealing about this extreme poly-tiered "as above, so below and a little below that" systematicity, but I wonder what metaphysical assumptions it demands. It allows the feeling that the universe has an order about it that science for all its mechanistic conceptions cannot bestow or recognize, but is that worthwhile in and of itself?
Dingo is right on the money with this...
Quote from: Placid Dingo on October 31, 2010, 01:43:51 PMProbably one of the points that needs clarification is are you trying to say that...
It's useful to think that were exist in these kind of fractals (in the Discordian-Bokonist sense that we can construct and develop our own sense of reality by consciously developing our own beliefs (Probably Cain's Discordianism and Perfect Nihilism is the type of thing i'm getting at.))
OR
We indeed DO live in these kinds of fractals. That there is objective value in examining the reactions of individuals in situations and applying these patterns to countries, in the same way that a scientist can experiment on a mouse to learn about humans.
I will add only that there is value in the ability to draw analogies between processes existing on different levels or in different senses, regardless of the reality or unreality of similarity. I am not prepared to throw down with the metaphysical fractal realist, but having a larger analogical vocabulary is definitely a good thing.
Quote from: CramsI'm starting to think about fractal cult language and terminology -- and I'll need some help with this
1-----I need a word which describes a pattern which occurs multiple times at the same level of magnification - such as sarah palin and christina o'donnel.
2-----And I need a word which describes the similarity between a pattern at one level and a pattern at another level - such as the relationship between one's circulatory system and the economy
For same-level and interlevel pattern similarity, I would use the terms 'tesselation' and 'homology', respectively. Homology is the term we used in History of Chinese Religion class to describe the notion of the link between the microcosm and the macrocosm--e.g., between the health of the emperor and the wellbeing of the state. Tesselation refers to a shape that can fill a space with copies of itself all placed side-by-side. While that in and of itself does not require or directly suggest reproduction, I like the idea that certain shapes create a negative space patterned after themselves.
The dance along the artery,
the circulation of the lymph,
are figured in the drift of stars.--T.S. Eliot,
Four Quartets
Let's start from the top---and try to crystalize/synthesize these ideas into some basic bullet points.
ALL of this is subject to critique and revision. :mrgreen:
1. Symbol: the mandelbrot set. "The universe is a fractal." The universe is infinitely complex, but graspable because it contains recurring patterns.
2. Symbol: the tree of life, the serpinski triangle, the golden spiral. "As above, so below." Structural similarities appear regardless of scale. The big picture can be observed in small things and vice versa.
3. Symbol: the fern, the leaf. Patterns occur multiple times at a the same scale. But each iteration is unique.
4. Symbol: the coastline, the koch curve (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Von_Koch_curve.gif/250px-Von_Koch_curve.gif). The closer your observe something, the more complex it becomes. There are no simple answers.
5. Symbol: the dragon cure (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Dragon_curve_animation.gif/300px-Dragon_curve_animation.gif). recursion. Patterns repeat over time because they are always iterations of existing patterns.
Quote from: Aleister Growly on October 31, 2010, 02:52:41 PM
If this is to be taken as reality rather than a way of thinking, it strikes me as sweet, delicious bullshit. The kind you know you should stop eating but you can't.
I think we are only capable of describing models. I don't think anybody is presenting this as a really for real true description of the universe - more of a thought experiment so far.
QuoteI have desperately wanted and tried to believe in a Jungian or Campbellian universal motif, but it's seemed wrong from any approach outside wishful thinking. Not only are archetypes ill-defined, they are supposed to be ineffable.
models cannot be true or false, they can only have degrees of usefulness.
In this case I do think they are useful in that we can learn something about humanity, and ourselves, by examining the patterns which recur in nearly every culture.
QuoteFor same-level and interlevel pattern similarity, I would use the terms 'tesselation' and 'homology', respectively. Homology is the term we used in History of Chinese Religion class to describe the notion of the link between the microcosm and the macrocosm--e.g., between the health of the emperor and the wellbeing of the state. Tesselation refers to a shape that can fill a space with copies of itself all placed side-by-side. While that in and of itself does not require or directly suggest reproduction, I like the idea that certain shapes create a negative space patterned after themselves.
good notes... I wrote the bullet points in the above post before I saw this.. I think you're onto something with the homology. This calls for more research on my part.
Tesselation is definitely a nod in the right direction but I think it also implies uniformity, which does not sit well with complexity.
ahh it turns out tessellation does not imply uniformity. my bad, I was thinking too hard about those escherian lizards
Quote from: Cramulus on October 31, 2010, 03:04:33 PM
Quote from: Aleister Growly on October 31, 2010, 02:52:41 PM
If this is to be taken as reality rather than a way of thinking, it strikes me as sweet, delicious bullshit. The kind you know you should stop eating but you can't.
I think we are only capable of describing models. I don't think anybody is presenting this as a really for real true description of the universe - more of a thought experiment so far.
Okay, just checking. In that case, I really like this. I am in love with metalanguage and metadescriptions that can carry over from one thing to another--in fact, it is the key to the way I learn--synthesizing and analogizing. For a musician, dancer and martial artist, this is pure gold.
QuoteQuoteI have desperately wanted and tried to believe in a Jungian or Campbellian universal motif, but it's seemed wrong from any approach outside wishful thinking. Not only are archetypes ill-defined, they are supposed to be ineffable.
models cannot be true or false, they can only have degrees of usefulness.
While models can and will
reshape redistrict experience, I believe we can identify patterns in our experience and thereby construct a true processual understanding of it.
QuoteIn this case I do think they are useful in that we can learn something about humanity, and ourselves, by examining the patterns which recur in nearly every culture.
For William Blake via Northrop Frye, humanity is a single being which has fallen and forgotten itself. The highest aim is the remembrance of the identity of the great and primordial man, and to be a visionary who sees the unfallen world of wholeness. But, I'm wandering a bit afield.
Do you see any incompatibility between archetypes and an almost mathematical similarity?
QuoteQuoteFor same-level and interlevel pattern similarity, I would use the terms 'tesselation' and 'homology', respectively. Homology is the term we used in History of Chinese Religion class to describe the notion of the link between the microcosm and the macrocosm--e.g., between the health of the emperor and the wellbeing of the state. Tesselation refers to a shape that can fill a space with copies of itself all placed side-by-side. While that in and of itself does not require or directly suggest reproduction, I like the idea that certain shapes create a negative space patterned after themselves.
good notes... I wrote the bullet points in the above post before I saw this.. I think you're onto something with the homology. This calls for more research on my part.
Tesselation is definitely a nod in the right direction but I think it also implies uniformity, which does not sit well with complexity.
Quoteahh it turns out tessellation does not imply uniformity. my bad, I was thinking too hard about those escherian lizards
Even so, perhaps it is better to speak of people, situations, beliefs, things, etc. as having tesselational properties. A particular instantiation of interest is interpersonal dynamics. In a two-person interaction pattern there are two roles. We learn our role by participation, and the other person's role by observation. Obviously you will not become the same person as the other person, but once a pattern is established, we often try to (or inadvertently do, as dynamics function as attractors) recreate said pattern in other interactions. This is how, to use a trite example, abusees can become abusers.
I understand that if you look hard enough, you can see recursive patterns in the world. I just don't see the point.
If two things are similar enough that understanding one helps you understand the other, cool. If not, then trying to draw too many parallels obscures the object under study.
QuoteIf two things are similar enough that understanding one helps you understand the other, cool. If not, then trying to draw too many parallels obscures the object under study.
I'm not sure that this method of thinking is ideal for academic study, it's too hard to get swayed by confirmation biases.. Instead maybe the fractal cult experience is found by intentionally embarking on that now and then. I imagine a kind of "fractal meditation", where one contemplates complexity and interconnectedness until they are overwhelmed by it.
and maybe jacks off or something, i dunno
Quote from: Golden Applesauce on October 31, 2010, 08:24:52 PM
I understand that if you look hard enough, you can see recursive patterns in the world. I just don't see the point.
The "point" of any belief system is to help understand the world through a certain lens.
I mean, what's the "point" of Discordia? or of buddhism? or anything for that matter
Speaking personally,
I've been fascinated by fractals since I first discovered them. At age 14 I was downloading the latest version of fractint and spending HOURS getting lost in mathmatic worlds. I became obsessed with pattern finding. In my teen years I read a ton of Piers Anthony and a ton of Douglas Hofstadter, both of whom were really interested in the hidden worlds that the latest developments in mathematics had revealed.
Fractals are a new concept. A system of thought involving fractals couldn't have existed prior to 1975. To me there is something "spiritual" about them. They are an excellent illustration of the correspondence between the micro and the macro, the interconnectedness in any complex system, and the dizzying amount of complexity in our lives.
The latest motif in my headspace was initiated by the chaos marxism blog - the idea is to connect the spiritual trails of the Higher Self with the mundane trials of the Lower Self. I sought out a symbol which I could use to remind myself of this connection. Originally I wanted something I could meditate on, some mantra I could hum to get me through my day, maybe something to doodle on my hand so I'd keep it in mind. (I guess that's why people wear crosses, right?)
The fractal was staring me in the face the whole time.
Cram - I love this concept. I don't really have a whole lot to add, only to say that I'm really enjoying reading your ideas - you're thinking about things that I kind of never have, and it's really interesting to observe how this is impacting on my worldview (or lack of it, really)
I made this (based on the Cantor Set, one of the simplest fractals), it's not particularly anything, except of course all sorts of symbolic:
(http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6817/fractalcultasabovesobel.png)
Also, a question, maybe a dead end, ignore it if you like, but I remember the trippy and cheesy and fractal patterns on covers of psychedelic goa-trance albums, and always thought they looked like that partly because it was an attempt at trippy computer stuff but in the early 90s (when goa-trance was at its peak) computer graphics just looked kinda cheesy. Computers nowadays can produce gorgeous psychedelic eyecandy of incredible complexity. Then I did my first mushroom trips, and saw those patterns, behind closed eyelids mostly. I was amused, the early 90s goa-trance psychedelic imagery was spot-on, and a modern highly complex 3D ray-traced animated morphing fractal contraption would have shot lightyears past its goal. Apparently my "psychedelic graphics" module in my mind about has the power of an early 90s pentium :-P
Anyway I digress, as I said maybe it's a dead end, but in this context of the Fractal Cult, would there be a reason to see fractal patterns while on hallucinogenics? I know that I also had a bunch of thoughts about the entire universe being inside the tip of a grass blade I was looking at (recursively), but I might have been primed for that thought by hippie literature I had read earlier on, so I dunno exactly where that thought came from (it echos in Shpongle's Around the World in a Tea Daze : "So you take this whole universe, and you put it inside a very tiny head, and fold it ... and you take this whole universe, and you put it inside this very tiny head, and fold it ... so you take ... etc").
Or maybe I'm just babbling, in which case, enjoy the picture :) Afterwards, I kinda wish I had made the recursion go both up and down, but I constructed it by hand so I didn't want to redo the thing.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Auguries_of_Innocence
Only read the first few lines (will consume the rest later), but yeah, that's pretty much it.
Quote from: Cramulus on October 31, 2010, 09:04:04 PM
Quote from: Golden Applesauce on October 31, 2010, 08:24:52 PM
I understand that if you look hard enough, you can see recursive patterns in the world. I just don't see the point.
The "point" of any belief system is to help understand the world through a certain lens.
I mean, what's the "point" of Discordia? or of buddhism? or anything for that matter
I think I asked the wrong question, or asked it in the wrong way. What I meant to get at, is there are a ton of philosophies / models / thought systems that deal with the holistic-ness and whole-ness and interrelated-ness of the universe. There's obviously
something to those, or so many people wouldn't have spent so much time on them. What I'm not getting is how the "fractal" part specifically adds to the framework.
Quote from: Triple Zero on October 31, 2010, 09:32:33 PM
(http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6817/fractalcultasabovesobel.png)
(http://blog.craftzine.com/geekmittens.jpg)
that's brilliant!
Quote from: Golden Applesauce on October 31, 2010, 11:20:53 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on October 31, 2010, 09:04:04 PM
Quote from: Golden Applesauce on October 31, 2010, 08:24:52 PM
I understand that if you look hard enough, you can see recursive patterns in the world. I just don't see the point.
The "point" of any belief system is to help understand the world through a certain lens.
I mean, what's the "point" of Discordia? or of buddhism? or anything for that matter
I think I asked the wrong question, or asked it in the wrong way. What I meant to get at, is there are a ton of philosophies / models / thought systems that deal with the holistic-ness and whole-ness and interrelated-ness of the universe. There's obviously something to those, or so many people wouldn't have spent so much time on them. What I'm not getting is how the "fractal" part specifically adds to the framework.
I'm not trying to add to
their framework. :wink:
I want to reiterate (no pun intended) because I don't want to brush off your question GA- it's definitely a good one.
This idea is still in development, so I couldn't yet tell you exactly what advantages it will have over existing stuff. Speaking personally again, I have this drive to make new things, to have thoughts that nobody's ever had before, to develop something (a lifestyle?) which fits my life perfectly.
This may sound a bit circular, but because we live in a fractal universe, I know that there must people out there who share my needs, other people for whom a fractal is the best symbol for the universe.
Because there is a drive to make models of the universe in one's own head and personality drives us to make those models uneque or drives us to follow a well established (I don't say correct) model that has been accepted by some portion of the thinking universe. As a thought experiment this is great. It is a Zen Koan. It seemes suceptable to falling into thought loops though. like finding the number 23 all over the place because you are looking for it and the processes of how the brain work reinforce the finding such patterns. As a thought experiment this can lead to levels of complex thoughts on all types of subjects (just like trying to talk in E-prime) but the brain is a fairly low power processor and the programing often falles back to simple binary pattern recognition of things being one thing or the other. The model of something can be seen in the model of something else but they are still both models. Of course all we preceve is just a model of the universe so picking this one is just as valid as any other. It is a pretty model after all.
(http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20101101.gif)
(http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20101101after.gif)
For your terminology, how about homomorphism and related terms? "Isomorphism" is used a lot in GEB, iirc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphism
An isomorphism is a bijective homomorphism.
An epimorphism (sometimes called a cover) is a surjective homomorphism.
A monomorphism (sometimes called an embedding or extension) is an injective homomorphism.
An endomorphism is a homomorphism from an object to itself.
An automorphism is an endomorphism which is also an isomorphism, i.e., an isomorphism from an object to itself.
especially endomorphism sounds interesting. I forgot the difference between injection and surjection, but epi-* and mono-* are probably also useful terms.
OSHI-! Morphisms!
I've only skimmed this thread so far, but, holy shit, you have to watch this video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_preston_on_the_giant_trees.html
Apparently Redwoods are 6-layer fractals! If you want to skip ahead, he goes into it just after the 9 minute mark or so.
I explosively shit my pants at that part.
Quote from: Liam on November 02, 2010, 02:55:08 AM
fuck me. FUCK ME.
There is nothing not amazing about redwoods.
Right?
Being a bit of a treehugging eco-terrorist myself, I do recommend the whole video.
:hippie:
Bump.
(http://imgur.com/UtRpR.png)
:D
I may cram another layer of Crams and turn it into a poster if Cram is comfortable with the prospect of widespread public crammage.
I think the basic idea is older than (the concept of) fractals. Not just the homology between the microcosm and the macrocosm, but the notion of countless intermediate layers...
This thread is :mittens:. Watching intently.
(http://www.deviantart.com/download/70027950/Chaos_Fractal__by_Gfx_Team.png) (http://gfx-team.deviantart.com/art/Chaos-Fractal-70027950)
(http://www.miqel.com/images_1/miqel_data/fractal_images/fresh_fractals_chaos_3.jpg) (http://www.miqel.com/miqel_data/art/fractal_freaakout_gallery.html)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tzhbvr4x724/TD0PPj86nII/AAAAAAAAADc/GG6ywuVdASo/s1600/origin_oscillation_transformatio-2.jpg) (http://metamorphoptics.blogspot.com/)
As soon as a saw "Fractal Cult" I was like "Yup, you don't have to say shit, I'm on board this already"
HYPER COMPLEX FRACTALS, JIZZ IN MAH PANTS
http://www.bugman123.com/Hypercomplex/index.html
(http://www.bugman123.com/Hypercomplex/Mandelbulb8-large.jpg)
(http://www.bugman123.com/Hypercomplex/Juliabulb4-large.jpg)
(http://www.bugman123.com/Hypercomplex/Glynn-Triplex-large.jpg)
Also this:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4332275232_4bc74dd4b0_o.jpg)
Quote from: Net on November 06, 2010, 03:20:19 PM
:D
I may cram another layer of Crams and turn it into a poster if Cram is comfortable with the prospect of widespread public crammage.
wooooah net! Love the fractal crammage :mrgreen:
you have my permission to use my likeness in this debacle
When a pamphlet is put together, a lot of these graphics will go well in it
working on the text for a booklet
I've pasted relevant parts of this thread and expanded on some stuff
http://principiadiscordia.com/cramulus/index.php?title=Fractal_Cult
I would love to hear more thoughts on this, or perhaps you guys can point me to more images or quotes which support the thing
still in-progress
version 0.5
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42678527
Another concept that I read about in "The Black Swan" is that of Scaling and Self-similarity, that what things look like on a small level is what they look like on a larger level-
I can't find the pictures he uses in the book online, but there is a great picture of a lens cap against some "sand", which when zoomed out is revealed that it's actually an oversized giant lens cap next to a human and it's actually the side of a mountain.
need to do some revisions
was panicking about something today and I tried to calm myself by visualizing the fern
but it really just made things worse
the leaflets on the fern became all the other things I was stressed about
I am intrigued by this thread. I've read the first page but it seems to resonate. Will have to bookmark and read the rest later. It fits well with my premise that "In the small things, can the large be measured".
I like the way you think, Cramulus. And it scares me. :P
Herein is especially apprehended the unity of Nature, -- the unity in variety, -- which meets us everywhere. All the endless variety of things make an identical impression. Xenophanes complained in his old age, that, look where he would, all things hastened back to Unity. He was weary of seeing the same entity in the tedious variety of forms. The parable of Proteus has a cordial truth. Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully renders the likeness of the world.
Not only resemblances exist in things whose analogy is obvious, as when we detect the type of the human hand in the flipper of the fossil saurus, but also in objects wherein there is great superficial unlikeness. Thus architecture is called "frozen music," by De Stael and Goethe. Vitruvius thought an architect should be a musician. "A Gothic church," said Coleridge, "is a petrified religion." Michael Angelo maintained, that, to an architect, a knowledge of anatomy is essential. In Haydn's oratorios, the notes present to the imagination not only motions, as, of the snake, the stag, and the elephant, but colors also, as the green grass. The law of harmonic sounds reappears in the harmonic colors. The granite is differenced in its laws only by the more or less of heat, from the river that wears it away. The river, as it flows, resembles the air that flows over it, the air resembles the light which traverses it with more subtle currents, the light resembles the heat which rides with it through Space. Each creature is only a modification of the other, the likeness in them is more than the difference, and their radical law is one and the same. A arule of one art, or a law of one orgnization, holds true throughout nature. So intimate is this Unity, that, it is easily seen, it lies under the undermost garment of nature, and betrays its source in Universal Spirit. For, it pervades Thought also. Every universal truth which we express in words, implies or supposes every other truth. Omine verum vero consonat. It is like a great circle on a sphere, comprising all possible circles, which, however they may be drawn, and comprise it, in like manner. Every such truth is the absolute Ens seen from one side. But it has innumerable sides.
-Nature Walking, by Ralph Waldo Emerson (p38)
Taking the idea of fractal recursion as a lens, it would be interesting to see how that works with a temporal horizon. Taking the fern leaf as an image first, I see recursion as the repetition of a pattern on a plane. This is similar to how we may render recursion in the temporal mode of being present: the picture of that fern leaf is rendered on a plane, without the recursion strongly intimating the presence of different levels.
The repetition across a plane then seems to occur at different scales, crudely, going both over, and also in, or out. Over like panning the lens; in and out like zooming.
Both these cases of recursion occurring in the mode of being present imply a repetition of recursion. The repetition requires ...
[Interrupted by telephonic things...]
In SyFy's Alice, the fractal is the mark of the oysters when the humans enter wonderland
Quote from: Pēleus on November 25, 2010, 04:25:09 AM
In SyFy's Alice, the fractal is the mark of the oysters when the humans enter wonderland
:asplode:
You lost me.
Quote from: Epimetheus on November 25, 2010, 09:14:59 AM
:asplode:
You lost me.
Read
Through the Looking Glass. Specifically, "The Carpenter and the Walrus."
The first part of this (http://lesswrong.com/lw/ve/mundane_magic/) reminded me of this thread (bolded for your ease of use):
QuoteThe Ultimate Power. The user of this ability contains a smaller, imperfect echo of the entire universe, enabling them to search out paths through probability to any desired future. If this sounds like a ridiculously powerful ability, you're right - game balance goes right out the window with this one. Extremely rare among life forms, it is the sekai no ougi or "hidden technique of the world".
Nothing can oppose the Ultimate Power except the Ultimate Power. Any less-than-ultimate Power will simply be "comprehended" by the Ultimate and disrupted in some inconceivable fashion, or even absorbed into the Ultimates' own power base. For this reason the Ultimate Power is sometimes called the "master technique of techniques" or the "trump card that trumps all other trumps". The more powerful Ultimates can stretch their "comprehension" across galactic distances and aeons of time, and even perceive the bizarre laws of the hidden "world beneath the world".
Ultimates have been killed by immense natural catastrophes, or by extremely swift surprise attacks that give them no chance to use their power. But all such victories are ultimately a matter of luck - it does not confront the Ultimates on their own probability-bending level, and if they survive they will begin to bend Time to avoid future attacks.
But the Ultimate Power itself is also dangerous, and many Ultimates have been destroyed by their own powers - falling into one of the flaws in their imperfect inner echo of the world.
Stripped of weapons and armor and locked in a cell, an Ultimate is still one of the most dangerous life-forms on the planet. A sword can be broken and a limb can be cut off, but the Ultimate Power is "the power that cannot be removed without removing you".
Perhaps because this connection is so intimate, the Ultimates regard one who loses their Ultimate Power permanently - without hope of regaining it - as schiavo, or "dead while breathing". The Ultimates argue that the Ultimate Power is so important as to be a necessary part of what makes a creature an end in itself, rather than a means. The Ultimates even insist that anyone who lacks the Ultimate Power cannot begin to truly comprehend the Ultimate Power, and hence, cannot understand why the Ultimate Power is morally important - a suspiciously self-serving argument.
The users of this ability form an absolute aristocracy and treat all other life forms as their pawns.
He's talking about Circuits 1-8, or to put it another way, he talking about the fundamental Divinity/Darkness in human beings (who, individually, have the ability to abstract and predict events in their environment at a much higher level than the other life forms on the planet).
At the same time, he's talking about the fundamental disconnect between the "upper mind/lower mind" that you find in humans, as expressed by Hermes Trimegisterous (As Above, So Below), Tai/Chi/Chi Gung (Upper and Lower Dan Tien), NeuroPsychology (Disconnect between the autonomic and central nervous systems, or the head-brain and gut-brain), Kabala (Upper Sephiroth, Lower Sephiroth in the Tree of Life), Tantra (raising the Kundalini Serpent Energy from the Red Genital Chackra, up through the Purple Pineal, and Void Crown Chackras). This describes the disconnect between 'intuitive' prediction-thought-response and 'abstract/deliberated' prediction-thought-response that the Buddha said leads to the rising of Desires, which you then pursue without considering the negative effects of your actions.
Nearly all of the schools that teach techniques to reconcile the Hodge and the Podge of the diffuse and sleeping human potential warn of treating others as pawns, and thus being destroyed by the TAO.
Nice find, Cain. I especially like this imagery:
++contains a smaller, imperfect echo of the entire universe, enabling them to search out paths through probability to any desired future.++
Well, he calls it Bayesian Rationality, but that doesn't mean they're not necessarily the same thing.
The DIY factor of this fractal will cause you to shit your pants into your pants in a turquoise poomp of infinity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DK5Z709J2eo
and what appears to be the same kind of fractal only with 3d graphics and horrifying synced audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lcO9zRCv-4
Nice.
Here's another good score:
http://sites.google.com/site/mandelbox/negative-mandelbox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GaB1VMAXPQ&feature=channel
Quote from: Telarus on December 20, 2010, 01:44:33 AM
Nice.
Here's another good score:
http://sites.google.com/site/mandelbox/negative-mandelbox
I love the "extreme closeup" focal blur trick in one of those pictures further down the bottom. It gives a wonderful sense of scale that most 3D fractals lack. Of course they
should lack a sense of scale, cause they're fractals, however bringing that back brings them a bit more "down to earth", a bit less surreal or psychedelic.
Bump for Cramulus:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IaI1p-pJ8M0/TpTA2VtPvsI/AAAAAAAACWI/dz1hltPpWvg/s308/1201615ZyjSP3is.gif)
mental note: render moar fractals :)
Quote from: Telarus on October 12, 2011, 09:09:55 AM
Bump for Cramulus:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IaI1p-pJ8M0/TpTA2VtPvsI/AAAAAAAACWI/dz1hltPpWvg/s308/1201615ZyjSP3is.gif)
That's awesome...
XAOS (a realtime mandelbrot zoomer) implemented in Javascript!!
http://jblangston.com/xaos/
It's kinda slow on my little netbook, but it works! Amazing!