Western Culure has long been obsessed by the smooth and symmetric. Not al cultures are similarly obsessed,but the West(meaning European derived) has long regarded perfect forms as symmetric, smooth, and whole. We look for patterns and symmetry everywhere. Often, we impose patterns where none exists, and we deny patterns that do cont conform to our overall conceptual framework. That is, when patterns are not symmetrical and smooth, we classify them as illusions.
This confict can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. To describe our physical world, they created geometry based on pure, symmetric, and smooth forms. Plato said that the "real" world consisted fo these shapes. These forms were created by a force, or entity, caled the "Good". The world of the Good could be glimposed only occasionally, throught the mind. The world we inhabit is an imperfect copy of the real world, and was created by a dfferent entiy, caled the "Demiurage". The Demiurage, a lesser being than the Good., was doomed to create inferior copies of the real world. These copies were rought, asymmetirc, and subject to decay. In this way, Plato reconciled the inability of the Greek geometry, later formalized by Euclid, to describe our wolrd. the problem was not with the geometry,but wth our world itsef.
Fractal geometry is the geometry of the Demiurage. Unlike Euclidean geometry, it thrives on roughness and asymmetry. Object are not variations on a few perfect and symmetircal forms, but are infinitely complex. For example, a tree is a fracal form. each leaf is similar to the other one, but is still different. This self-similar quality is the defining characteristic of fractals. Most natural structures, particularly living things, have this characteristic.
待續....
留言列表
